Ryanair has warned that “passport-queue chaos” could spoil the peak holiday season unless the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) is paused. In an open letter on 2 July, the Irish carrier listed seven airports—Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante, Málaga, Milan Bergamo, Kraków and Paris Beauvais—where fingerprint kiosks are already creating bottlenecks. EES, fully rolled out in April, requires travellers from non-Schengen countries (including Ireland and the U.K.) to provide fingerprints and a facial photo the first time they enter the zone, with biometric verification on every subsequent trip. Processing times of up to two minutes per person have been reported, and Ryanair says staff are facing abuse as families miss flights. The airline, backed by Airports Council International and Airlines for Europe, wants member states to invoke an emergency opt-out that would defer compulsory checks until September. Irish passengers are particularly exposed because 70 % of outbound leisure traffic from Dublin, Cork and Shannon is Schengen-bound. Extra.ie advises travellers to arrive earlier, monitor strike calendars in France, Spain and Italy, and keep receipts for compensation claims under EU 261. Corporate travel managers should factor longer connection times into itineraries and warn executives that fast-track security lanes do not bypass EES kiosks. The European Commission has called an urgent meeting next week with airlines and airports, but insiders say a full-year deferral to summer 2027 is now on the table. If granted, Ireland would benefit twice: avoiding outbound congestion and buying time to upgrade Dublin Airport’s biometric infrastructure, which is not yet EES-compliant.
Source: The Guardian
