The EES border chaos now unfolding at European airports is not a teething problem to be quietly managed: it is a systemic failure that the people running those airports can no longer stay silent about. ACI Europe president Stefan Schulte, speaking at an industry event in Prague on 23 June 2026, told politicians to ‘stop pretending… that EES is working just fine. It is not.’
Schulte, who also heads the company that owns Frankfurt Airport and was elected to lead ACI Europe on 20 June 2025, is not a figure prone to public panic. His warning carries weight precisely because trade association presidents rarely speak this bluntly about EU infrastructure.
A System That Was Never Truly Ready
The Entry-Exit System (EES) requires travellers from outside the Schengen free travel zone to register biometric data, including facial scans and fingerprints, on their first visit. That profile is then stored for three years and checked on subsequent crossings. The European Commission set 12 October 2025 as the date for the phased start of EES operations. According to ABTA, the system only reached full operability on 10 April 2026, with implementation at participating countries still ongoing at that point.
That timeline matters. The system was barely eight months into phased rollout when peak summer traffic arrived. The UK government’s official guidance confirms British citizens may be required to register biometric details on their first post-EES visit to the Schengen area, at no cost and with no pre-registration needed. What it cannot tell you is how long that process will take when 200 passengers arrive simultaneously at a gate.
The answer, at too many airports, has been: a very long time.
EES Border Chaos Is Already Stranding Passengers
The human cost is mounting. Dozens of Ryanair passengers were stranded in Athens after their London Luton flight departed without them. Ryanair pointed to border delays; Athens airport cited ‘additional processing requirements’. Neither directly named EES, but the pattern is consistent with every other incident since the system launched. Earlier, passengers flying from Milan Bergamo and Milan Linate to Manchester also missed flights due to passport control problems.
Wizz Air has already urged British holidaymakers to arrive at European airports three hours before departure. Three hours. For a return flight home.
Schulte’s position is that airports and passengers cannot absorb this indefinitely. ‘Passengers are queueing for hours at peak traffic times,’ he said, ‘and I just do not know how we will be able to cope in the coming weeks with the expected increase in traffic.’ He is calling for border authorities to be given ‘full flexibility’ to suspend EES whenever queues become unmanageable, alongside a broader rethink of the processes involved.
The European Commission is permitting suspensions in some circumstances until September. But here is the practical problem Schulte identified: individual governments, not airports, make the call to suspend. While that decision is being taken, the queue grows. By the time EES is paused, the damage is done.
And September is not the end of the summer travel season. Schulte warned the BBC’s World at One programme that beyond early September lies the potential ‘complete collapse of the system’.
My read is that the Commission’s willingness to permit suspensions until September is an implicit acknowledgement that the system is not fit for current volumes. Announcing a fix deadline of September while warning the summer peak lasts well beyond it is not a solution; it is a postponement of a harder conversation.
The picture elsewhere is murky. Greece’s tourism minister promised British passengers would not face biometric checks travelling to Greece this summer. The Greek Foreign Ministry subsequently disputed any such exemption existed. Portugal and Italy were reportedly weighing similar carve-outs for British nationals; the Commission said no such plans were in place. The result is a patchwork of contradictory signals that helps no traveller plan anything with confidence.
Ireland and Cyprus, as EU members outside the Schengen area, will not implement EES automated checks at all. For the rest, the crunch is here now, and the question is not whether the summer will produce further incidents. It is how many, and how bad.
Schulte framed the stakes in terms of reputation: ‘This is about showing respect and decency for those who chose to travel to the EU, and safeguarding our reputation as a welcoming and efficient destination.’ That is a polite way of saying the EU’s border policy is actively driving visitors away. Watch whether the Commission moves to extend suspension permissions beyond September before the school holiday peak hits in late July.
