Kraków’s John Paul II International Airport woke up on Thursday, 2 July, to the same scenes now being reported from Málaga, Milan-Bergamo and other popular holiday gateways across Europe: non-EU travellers shuffling forward in snaking lines that spill out into the departures forecourt. The problem is the new Entry/Exit System (EES) – the EU’s biometric border register that requires first-time visa-exempt visitors to have their fingerprints and a high-resolution facial image captured at the border desk. In a strongly-worded statement, Ryanair said the fledgling system is “not ready for peak loads” and called on the European Commission to allow Member States – including Poland – to switch off the checks during July and August. According to the carrier, Kraków is already among the seven airports where queues regularly exceed two hours, leading to missed connections and, in some cases, flights leaving with empty seats because passengers are trapped landside. The airline argues that holidaymakers should not be used as “guinea pigs” while airports race to install more biometric kiosks and hire extra border staff. Poland’s Border Guard (SG) says it has deployed 40 additional officers and rented temporary marquees to keep passengers out of the sun, but industry bodies insist the measures are insufficient.
![Airlines warn of ‘queue chaos’ at Kraków Airport as EU biometric checks bite]()
At the trip-planning stage, consulting a specialist visa service can remove much of the uncertainty surrounding the new biometric checks. VisaHQ, for example, maintains a dedicated Poland portal (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) where travellers and corporate mobility teams can verify documentation requirements, receive real-time alerts on EES roll-outs and even arrange courier pick-ups for any supporting paperwork—helping to shave precious minutes off airport processing times.
Aletta von Massenbach, head of Berlin Airport, told the Guardian that “the situation is not bearable over the summer” and warned that neighbouring hubs such as Kraków risk reputational damage if congestion continues. Travel agents are already reporting a spike in itinerary changes as tour operators steer clients away from the worst-affected airports. For global mobility managers, the immediate advice is to add at least 90 minutes to normal check-in times for third-country nationals departing Poland, remind travellers that the first EES enrolment is the slowest, and ensure connecting flights have generous minimum-connection windows. Longer term, companies may need to review whether short-stay Schengen assignments should be re-routed through airports where automated “EES e-gates” are in place or postponed until after the summer peak if flexibility allows.
At the trip-planning stage, consulting a specialist visa service can remove much of the uncertainty surrounding the new biometric checks. VisaHQ, for example, maintains a dedicated Poland portal (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) where travellers and corporate mobility teams can verify documentation requirements, receive real-time alerts on EES roll-outs and even arrange courier pick-ups for any supporting paperwork—helping to shave precious minutes off airport processing times.
Aletta von Massenbach, head of Berlin Airport, told the Guardian that “the situation is not bearable over the summer” and warned that neighbouring hubs such as Kraków risk reputational damage if congestion continues. Travel agents are already reporting a spike in itinerary changes as tour operators steer clients away from the worst-affected airports. For global mobility managers, the immediate advice is to add at least 90 minutes to normal check-in times for third-country nationals departing Poland, remind travellers that the first EES enrolment is the slowest, and ensure connecting flights have generous minimum-connection windows. Longer term, companies may need to review whether short-stay Schengen assignments should be re-routed through airports where automated “EES e-gates” are in place or postponed until after the summer peak if flexibility allows.
