Ryanair warns EU border checks could cause summer travel chaos

Ryanair warned on 2 July that the EU’s Entry/Exit System was not ready for the end-of-school-term travel period, saying millions of families were heading across Europe for summer holidays and could face longer passport checks. The airline urged European governments to push the rollout back until September, arguing that the new border controls risked turning peak-season travel into queue chaos.

The warning focused on the pressure point that matters most to passengers: time. Ryanair said travellers to and from Spain had already faced avoidable hour-long passport-control queues over the May bank holiday weekend, and it said some immigration waits had stretched to five hours or more. The airline also pressed France, Portugal, Spain and Italy to suspend or delay the system until September, when the holiday surge eases.

The Entry/Exit System, or EES, is the European Union’s biometric border scheme for non-EU nationals. It records entries and exits using fingerprints and facial scans, and the European Commission says it became fully operational on 10 April 2026. That means the system is already part of the travel landscape at EU and Schengen-area border checkpoints, even as airports and ports continue adjusting to the extra processing time it can require.

Industry warnings have widened beyond Ryanair. The boss of Berlin Airport has warned of severe disruption from the new digital border check system, while the head of Europe’s airports trade body, Airports Council International Europe, said the issue was keeping him and other airport leaders awake at night. Passengers have already reported hours-long waits at some destinations during busy periods, underscoring why airport operators are bracing for delays if the summer peak collides with the new controls.

For UK travellers, the immediate risk is missed connections, longer queues and slower processing at passport control during the busiest weeks of the year. ABTA has already told passengers to allow extra time because checks are expected to take longer, and the sharpest pinch is likely to fall on families travelling during school holidays, when airports are already at their most crowded.