Budget carrier Ryanair has stepped up warnings that the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) could trigger “unmanageable queues” for millions of UK residents heading to the Continent this summer.
![Ryanair says EU fingerprint checks risk ‘queue chaos’ for UK holiday-makers]()
Travellers who need extra guidance on Schengen entry requirements—including how the new EES enrolment dovetails with existing visa rules—can also turn to VisaHQ’s UK portal. The service provides up-to-date information, document checklists and expedited processing for Schengen visas and many other destinations, and its advisors are already fielding questions about biometrics and border wait times. Full details are available at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/
From today (2 July) all non-EU travellers entering the Schengen area for the first time must register four fingerprints and a facial image. In a strongly-worded statement Ryanair listed seven airports—including Tenerife South, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Málaga, Milan Bergamo, Kraków and Paris Beauvais—where it claims bottlenecks are already causing passengers to miss flights home to the UK. The airline urged Brussels to allow member states to suspend the checks until after the peak July-August season, arguing that “families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked border system.” Airlines for Europe (A4E) and Airports Council International (ACI Europe) share those concerns and have demanded an urgent meeting with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Industry bodies say the infrastructure needed to fingerprint hundreds of passengers from a single wide-body arrival is still incomplete at many regional airports; staff are reporting abuse from frustrated travellers, and carriers face schedule disruption and compensation liabilities under EU261. For UK corporates the issue is more than a holiday headache. With most business trips now squeezed into two-day agendas, a one-hour border delay can wipe out a quarter of a sales meeting or require costly overnight stays. Global mobility managers are being advised to warn employees that first-time EES enrolment can take “five to ten minutes per traveller”, and to factor the risk of missed connections into itineraries. Ryanair’s intervention increases pressure on the European Commission, which insists average processing times are under 70 seconds and that airports may already suspend biometric capture during peak surges. Whether that flexibility is used may determine if the UK press once again labels continental airports the weak link in summer travel.
Travellers who need extra guidance on Schengen entry requirements—including how the new EES enrolment dovetails with existing visa rules—can also turn to VisaHQ’s UK portal. The service provides up-to-date information, document checklists and expedited processing for Schengen visas and many other destinations, and its advisors are already fielding questions about biometrics and border wait times. Full details are available at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/
From today (2 July) all non-EU travellers entering the Schengen area for the first time must register four fingerprints and a facial image. In a strongly-worded statement Ryanair listed seven airports—including Tenerife South, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Málaga, Milan Bergamo, Kraków and Paris Beauvais—where it claims bottlenecks are already causing passengers to miss flights home to the UK. The airline urged Brussels to allow member states to suspend the checks until after the peak July-August season, arguing that “families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked border system.” Airlines for Europe (A4E) and Airports Council International (ACI Europe) share those concerns and have demanded an urgent meeting with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Industry bodies say the infrastructure needed to fingerprint hundreds of passengers from a single wide-body arrival is still incomplete at many regional airports; staff are reporting abuse from frustrated travellers, and carriers face schedule disruption and compensation liabilities under EU261. For UK corporates the issue is more than a holiday headache. With most business trips now squeezed into two-day agendas, a one-hour border delay can wipe out a quarter of a sales meeting or require costly overnight stays. Global mobility managers are being advised to warn employees that first-time EES enrolment can take “five to ten minutes per traveller”, and to factor the risk of missed connections into itineraries. Ryanair’s intervention increases pressure on the European Commission, which insists average processing times are under 70 seconds and that airports may already suspend biometric capture during peak surges. Whether that flexibility is used may determine if the UK press once again labels continental airports the weak link in summer travel.
