European travel officials and airlines warn that the EU Entry/Exit System is unable to handle the current surge of summer holidaymakers.
This failure threatens to create significant bottlenecks at border checkpoints, potentially trapping millions of British travelers [1] in long queues during the peak vacation window.
Stefan Schulte, president of Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, said, "The system is not working fine" [2]. The biometric system, designed to automate border crossings, has already shown processing problems that officials fear will escalate as passenger volumes increase.
Ryanair has specifically warned that families could face lengthy delays at 15 European airports [3]. The airline's warning comes as the summer holiday period began the weekend of June 22-23, placing immediate pressure on infrastructure that is not yet fully operational.
At the UK-EU border in Dover, the situation is viewed with similar concern. An unnamed Dover council leader said, "It would have been complete and utter carnage" [4], referring to the potential impact of the system's current instabilities on border flow.
While some reports suggest British travelers might receive temporary relief from the system's requirements over the summer, other officials maintain that the risk of chaos remains high [5]. The system was originally scheduled to go live on Nov. 10, 2026 [6], but that launch has been postponed as the EU attempts to resolve these technical failures.
The current instability is particularly acute because the biometric requirements add a layer of processing time that the existing staffing levels at many airports cannot absorb during peak hours, creating a volatile environment for travelers.
“"The system is not working fine"”
The friction between the EU's push for digitized biometric borders and the reality of peak-season travel volumes reveals a gap in infrastructure readiness. By attempting to implement the Entry/Exit System before the technical framework could handle millions of passengers, the EU risks damaging the efficiency of the Schengen area's external borders and creating a negative precedent for the system's full rollout later this year.
