European airport bosses have warned that new EU border checks are significantly increasing waiting times for British nationals arriving in the bloc, in some cases tripling the average.
Speaking to the BBC, Ivan Bassato, chief aviation officer at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, explained that wait times for UK nationals to go through the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) in the Italian capital have gone from 7 minutes to 20 minutes on average.
EES has been gradually introduced since 12th October 2025 and fully operational from 10th April 2026. The EES records in an EU-wide database each entry and exit to the Schengen area of non-EU short-term visitors.
However, travel groups, airports and airlines alike have voiced concern about the system — particularly during peak summer travel.
EES registration is required for all non-EU nationals, but high passenger volumes from the UK to certain EU destinations mean that the system has created particular problems for British travellers.
Bassato confirmed that the EES rollout has impacted service quality at Rome Fiumicino: “We are not at the point where you have the same quality of the process [as] before the EES,” he said.
READ MORE: ‘Critical point’ – Europe’s airports demand urgent action to avoid summer border delays
However, he added that the introduction of new self-service biometric “kiosks” — often referred to as e-gates — had “improved things significantly” at the border, but added that urgent change was still needed.
“I think that we need to fix urgently certain aspects of the system,” he explained.
This follows news in June that both Rome’s Fiumicino and Ciampino airports were mulling plans to halt EES checks to avoid a “disaster” during summer travel peaks, the head of the company that manages them explained.
“We are very worried about the summer,” Aeroporti di Roma CEO Marco Troncone told the Financial Times in an interview, adding that his level of concern on a scale of one to ten was an “eight or nine”.
“The process proves to be incompatible with the peak volumes that we are going to face. So the only way is to open up the valve”, he said.
“There is no way that we can deliver 100 per cent of the enrollment.”
READ ALSO: EES: What to expect if you’re travelling to Italy this summer
The BBC report also highlights border issues caused by EES at airports in Portugal, another popular destination for British holidaymakers.
Pedro Oliveira, head of border control at Faro airport, in southern Portugal, told the BBC that average wait times there had also tripled in some cases: “sometimes what used to be a 10-minute queue… 1784555485 takes over 30 minutes.”
Delays have also been reported at various Spanish airports and the Port of Dover.
European officials, however, have denied the need for suspending EES checks, and the European Commission has repeatedly refused to suspend EES during the busy summer period.
READ ALSO: Europe’s EES border checks won’t be suspended, EU insists
Nonetheless, EU Commission officials have admitted that EES was “not perfect” but a full suspension was “not needed” and “not possible”.
The EU has pledged to resolve system issues, migration chief Magnus Brunner wrote in a letter seen by AFP, after airports and airlines blamed EES for disruption.
This comes as France’s Interior Ministry on Monday came to the system’s defence, saying that it is serving its purpose, with more than 44,000 people refused entry to the EU since its introduction in 2025, mostly due to over-staying visa or 90-day limits, or due to security concerns.
The Interior Ministry told UK newspaper The Independent: “More than 110 million entries and exits have been recorded in the system, and over 44,000 entry refusals have been notified, including more than 1,100 concerning individuals posing a threat to internal security.
“These figures demonstrate that EES effectively protects European citizens on a daily basis.”
READ ALSO: EES passport checks caused ‘no major congestion’ in France, says government
Since the introduction of the EES, however, several locations have reported significant delays at border crossings, with the situation worsening at peak times, such as the Easter holidays and summer season.
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has demanded the suspension of new controls until next summer amid fears of chaos in holiday hotspots.
Iata said passengers had experienced “delays and missed connections” in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Belgium, while Ryanair warned of “queue chaos” in airports at popular holiday destinations.
READ MORE: ‘Lot of work’ needed to resolve Europe’s border travel woes, EU chief admits
What is the EES system for?
The EES system, designed to detect overstayers, replaced the manual stamping of passports by taking biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images that have to be registered in front of a guard at the first crossing into the Schengen area.
Travellers from non-EU countries, including the UK, have to register fingerprints and facial images the first time they cross an external Schengen border to enter any of the 29 Schengen countries (25 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein).
The system was initially designed prior to Brexit – and supported by the UK – but since the UK’s exit from the EU, British travellers fall under its scope.
It was first launched on October 12th 2025 and the system has been introduced gradually, but technological issues have hindered implementation, however.
With reporting from AFP.
