Europe’s airports face a looming summer crisis as the new biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) triggers massive delays, with one lobby chief confessing he “cannot sleep” over the escalating operational nightmare. The system, designed to tighten EU border security, is instead causing flight cancellations, missed connections, and growing safety risks at major hubs.
The head of ACI Europe told reporters on Wednesday that the rollout has become a “trainwreck” that regulators are refusing to acknowledge. “I literally don’t sleep. We don’t know how we’re going to cope,” he said, citing fresh data showing that on a single Milan-to-Manchester flight last week, only 34 of 156 passengers boarded after prolonged biometric checks swallowed the rest.
The Data Behind the Disruption
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warns that under current processing speeds, a fully loaded wide-body aircraft could take over four hours to clear. In a survey of affected airports, 78% of passengers missed at least one flight due to EES bottlenecks. At the Port of Dover, French border police were forced to pause extra data collection on 23 May after processing ground to a complete halt.
- Average per-passenger processing time has increased from 12 seconds to over 50 seconds for first-time enrollees.
- Several EU member states have privately requested exemptions but have received no response from Brussels.
- Airlines are reporting a 25% rise in compensation claims related to denied boarding or long delays.