New EU biometric border system raises prospect of long airport queues across Europe

European airports are experiencing significant slowdowns linked to the phased deployment of the Entry-Exit System, a biometric registration process for non-EU arrivals. Where the technology has been introduced, officials and industry representatives report processing times that are several times longer than before, with many passengers encountering waits measured in hours rather than minutes. The system records fingerprints and a facial photo at first entry and replaces manual passport stamps with digital exit and entry data; this change is central to the current operational friction. Deployment is still partial: about half of crossing points are running the system and roughly a third of eligible travellers are being processed through it, creating a mix of legacy and new procedures at many airports. Measured outcomes to date include tens of millions of recorded crossings and a notable number of refused entries tied to the new checks, figures the Commission has shared to underline the system’s active use. Airport operators point to a combination of factors driving the bottlenecks: equipment faults or outages, limited numbers of kiosks, and insufficient border-guard staffing to match surges when multiple flights arrive together. Smaller locations and seasonal hotspots have been most exposed; videos and local reports show some terminals turning into long queues during peak arrival windows. The European Commission has signalled flexibility: member states may partially suspend EES processing at very busy times through the summer to ease flows, but that is presented as a temporary mitigation rather than a long-term fix. Industry bodies warn that unless kiosk reliability and officer resourcing improve quickly, routine holiday peaks — Easter and summer — could generate extreme waits, with scenarios projecting several-hour hold-ups. Travel trade groups urge better contingency planning and more aggressive use of permitted temporary measures, arguing that local authorities have not always exercised those options. For travellers, the practical advice is straightforward: expect variability at passport control and build substantial buffer time into itineraries during busy windows. For airports and governments, the immediate priorities are clear — scale operational resilience, increase front-line capacity, and harden systems against intermittent downtime. What began as a technical upgrade to border management is therefore producing near-term friction with direct commercial and reputational consequences for the travel sector.