Germany is about to enter the first main-holiday season since the EU’s biometric Entry-Exit System (EES) went live, and airlines are sounding the alarm. In a letter to European regulators revealed on 30 June, Airlines for Europe (A4E) said the new procedure already takes “up to four times longer” than the old passport-stamp routine and that many German airports still lack sufficient e-gates, fingerprint scanners and trained border-police staff. Under the EES, every traveller from a non-EU/Schengen “third country” must give fingerprints and a facial image on first entry and is logged on every subsequent crossing. While the system promises tighter overstayer monitoring, A4E warns that peak-day queues could spill into terminal concourses unless Germany temporarily scales staffing and equipment or exercises the legal option to suspend parts of the system during congestion. Airport operator FBB (BER) and industry group ACI Europe support the call, pointing to tests in Rome, Paris and Athens where primary-inspection time has risen from 30–45 seconds to well over two minutes per passenger.
![Airlines warn of summer chaos at German airports as new EU Entry-Exit System quadruples border-check times]()
For travellers keen to make sure all their paperwork is squared away before facing these longer EES lines, VisaHQ can help. Its dedicated Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) offers real-time guidance on visa categories, entry rules and upcoming systems such as ETIAS, letting both leisure and corporate passengers handle documentation online and sidestep last-minute surprises at the border.
At Germany’s busiest gateways—Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin— passenger volumes are projected to top pre-pandemic records this July, leaving little slack for teething problems. For corporate travel programmes, the longer dwell time at immigration could translate into missed rail/air connections and higher duty-of-care costs. Travel managers are already advising staff from the UK, US and other visa-waiver countries to arrive at least 45 minutes earlier than normal, carry printed boarding passes to avoid re-queuing at air-lines, and enrol in automated e-gate pilots where available. Policy-wise, the episode highlights the growing pain points when digital border controls meet legacy airport infrastructure. If Germany cannot demonstrate that it can keep queues under control, Brussels could face renewed pressure to delay the second major plank of its border-digitalisation agenda—the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS)—currently due early 2027.
For travellers keen to make sure all their paperwork is squared away before facing these longer EES lines, VisaHQ can help. Its dedicated Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) offers real-time guidance on visa categories, entry rules and upcoming systems such as ETIAS, letting both leisure and corporate passengers handle documentation online and sidestep last-minute surprises at the border.
At Germany’s busiest gateways—Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin— passenger volumes are projected to top pre-pandemic records this July, leaving little slack for teething problems. For corporate travel programmes, the longer dwell time at immigration could translate into missed rail/air connections and higher duty-of-care costs. Travel managers are already advising staff from the UK, US and other visa-waiver countries to arrive at least 45 minutes earlier than normal, carry printed boarding passes to avoid re-queuing at air-lines, and enrol in automated e-gate pilots where available. Policy-wise, the episode highlights the growing pain points when digital border controls meet legacy airport infrastructure. If Germany cannot demonstrate that it can keep queues under control, Brussels could face renewed pressure to delay the second major plank of its border-digitalisation agenda—the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS)—currently due early 2027.
