EU must “take stock of reality” and suspend EES over summer, say airlines

Airports and airlines have urged the European Union (EU) to suspend its recently implemented Entry/Exit System (EES) over the busy summer period, or risk “undermining EU reputation” among international travellers.

EES disruption has “reached critical point”

In an open letter to EU President Ursula von der Leyen, the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, which represents airlines and airports, has called on the bloc to suspend the EES system over the busy summer travel period.

The letter urged that while the busiest period is yet to begin, “passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough.”

The EES was fully implemented on April 10, 2026, and requires non-EU citizens to log their passport details and biometric data when they initially enter any EU country, before proceeding to passport control.

According to ACI Europe, passengers have faced waits of up to five hours to log their information at the EES control point, some planes have had to delay takeoff to wait for passengers and other flights have seen “half-empty planes at gate closing time”. 

EES is “undermining EU reputation”

After highlighting the disruption already caused by the EES, the letter urged the EU to “completely suspend” EES checks during July and August if “passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border control facilities”.

Since the EES was partially rolled out in October 2025 and fully implemented in April 2026, there have already been several instances where checks have been suspended.

In May, EES checks were temporarily suspended by French authorities at the Dover port, airports in Rome have now suspended checks until after summer and British citizens travelling to Greece are exempt from checks until September.

ACI Europe called for an “immediate intervention” before the “situation deteriorates further” and said that chaos of the current system was “undermining Europe’s reputation” among international tourists and putting confidence in the EU and its regulatory framework “at stake”. 

With 40 million more passengers expected to travel through EU airports in July and August than in the two months prior, the group urged the Commission to “take stock of the reality of the current situation”.