Italy’s busiest aviation hub says it is bracing for what could be the toughest operational summer in a decade. In an interview published on 27 June 2026, Aeroporti di Roma – the operator of Fiumicino and Ciampino – confirmed it may ask the Interior Ministry for permission to *temporarily relax* some biometric checks required by the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES). The operator’s modelling shows that first-time enrolment of non-EU travellers into the EES database lengthens each border transaction from an average of 20–30 seconds to as much as two minutes, creating cascading queues at peak arrival waves. EES replaces the manual passport-stamp with a digital file containing four fingerprints, a facial image and the traveller’s passport data.
![Rome Airports warn of two-year border bottlenecks as EU Entry/Exit System faces first summer stress-test]()
Passengers concerned about these new formalities can get ahead of the curve well before departure. VisaHQ’s dedicated Italy portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) streamlines visa applications and offers real-time guidance on EES enrolment, biometric requirements and Schengen compliance, saving both leisure and corporate travellers valuable time when they finally reach the border.
While designed to tighten external-border security and automatically flag overstayers, the scheme forces every third-country visitor to complete an initial biometric capture – a process that airports can speed up only by adding staff and equipment. The first real stress-test comes now: Italy expects inbound leisure traffic to exceed 2019 levels by 7 %, with daily non-EU arrivals at Fiumicino projected to top 42,000 in mid-August. Airport management fears that without flexibility – such as separating repeat visitors from first-timers or allowing manual inspection lines to open when queues exceed 45 minutes – the terminal could see “organisational meltdown”, flight-connection failures and missed cruise departures. For multinational employers and travel managers the warning is clear. Executive travellers with limited diary tolerance should allow extra connection buffers, and companies running group moves to Italy this summer are being advised to pre-enrol staff in trusted-traveller schemes where possible. Airlines have begun sending proactive SMS messages urging passengers to arrive at the gate with completed digital forms and to expect staggered boarding to compensate for upstream delays. Although Rome is sounding the loudest alarm, airport trade body ACI Europe says similar patterns are emerging at Milan Malpensa, Paris CDG and Lisbon. EU and Italian officials insist the system will smooth out within “12–18 months”, but acknowledge that the 2026 peak season is likely to be the most disruptive phase of the transition.
Passengers concerned about these new formalities can get ahead of the curve well before departure. VisaHQ’s dedicated Italy portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) streamlines visa applications and offers real-time guidance on EES enrolment, biometric requirements and Schengen compliance, saving both leisure and corporate travellers valuable time when they finally reach the border.
While designed to tighten external-border security and automatically flag overstayers, the scheme forces every third-country visitor to complete an initial biometric capture – a process that airports can speed up only by adding staff and equipment. The first real stress-test comes now: Italy expects inbound leisure traffic to exceed 2019 levels by 7 %, with daily non-EU arrivals at Fiumicino projected to top 42,000 in mid-August. Airport management fears that without flexibility – such as separating repeat visitors from first-timers or allowing manual inspection lines to open when queues exceed 45 minutes – the terminal could see “organisational meltdown”, flight-connection failures and missed cruise departures. For multinational employers and travel managers the warning is clear. Executive travellers with limited diary tolerance should allow extra connection buffers, and companies running group moves to Italy this summer are being advised to pre-enrol staff in trusted-traveller schemes where possible. Airlines have begun sending proactive SMS messages urging passengers to arrive at the gate with completed digital forms and to expect staggered boarding to compensate for upstream delays. Although Rome is sounding the loudest alarm, airport trade body ACI Europe says similar patterns are emerging at Milan Malpensa, Paris CDG and Lisbon. EU and Italian officials insist the system will smooth out within “12–18 months”, but acknowledge that the 2026 peak season is likely to be the most disruptive phase of the transition.
