Germany’s hub airports are already feeling the strain of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which became fully operational in April 2026. The system replaces manual passport-stamping for non-EU nationals with the collection of four fingerprints and a facial image at the border. While designed to tighten security and stop visa overstays, the roll-out has triggered queues of up to five hours at Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin Brandenburg, with passengers sometimes forced to wait outside terminal buildings. In an open letter dated 1 July, Europe’s three largest aviation bodies—Airports Council International (ACI Europe), Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA)—urged Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to authorise member states to “completely suspend” EES whenever passenger volumes exceed border-control capacity. They warned that July and August will bring roughly 40 million additional travellers compared with the previous two months and that Germany’s hubs will again be among the busiest transfer points. Industry executives say the current flexibility—allowing partial suspension until early September—has not prevented disruptive queues or missed connections. Frankfurt, Europe’s fourth-largest hub, reports aircraft departing half-empty because travellers are still in the immigration line; airlines must then rush to rebook no-shows, creating knock-on delays across their networks. For corporate mobility managers the stakes are high. A five-hour wait at the border can cause missed meetings, breached rest-time rules for crews and expensive duty-of-care complications. Multinationals moving staff into Germany on Short-Term Assignment or EU Blue Card routes risk project delays when employees are stranded in transit. Travel teams should advise non-EU employees and visitors to build extra time into itineraries, use biometric-ready eGates where available, and pre-register passport details in airline apps to shorten processing times.
![Aviation groups ask Brussels to let Germany and other states switch off EES biometric checks over summer]()
For those looking to minimise any documentation hiccups, VisaHQ offers a streamlined way to verify requirements and secure the correct paperwork before departure. Its dedicated Germany page (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) walks travellers through the latest entry rules, assembles the necessary forms and provides real-time status updates, helping passengers sail through border checks even when EES queues grow.
The aviation sector also calls for a permanent ‘exceptional-circumstances’ mechanism to let border police suspend EES at short notice beyond September. Whether the Commission agrees will determine how smoothly Germany’s airports handle the remaining summer peak and the busy trade-fair season that begins in September.
For those looking to minimise any documentation hiccups, VisaHQ offers a streamlined way to verify requirements and secure the correct paperwork before departure. Its dedicated Germany page (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) walks travellers through the latest entry rules, assembles the necessary forms and provides real-time status updates, helping passengers sail through border checks even when EES queues grow.
The aviation sector also calls for a permanent ‘exceptional-circumstances’ mechanism to let border police suspend EES at short notice beyond September. Whether the Commission agrees will determine how smoothly Germany’s airports handle the remaining summer peak and the busy trade-fair season that begins in September.
