Europe’s new Entry/Exit System is creating long queues and passenger disruption at major airports as the European Union’s biometric border checks roll out across the Schengen area. Reports from hubs including Paris, Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt, Brussels and Milan describe waits ranging from about two hours to as long as five or six hours, with some airports temporarily reverting to manual processing when congestion builds.
The system requires first-time non-EU travellers to provide passport data, facial images and fingerprints when entering the Schengen zone. That process was designed to tighten border controls and modernise passenger screening, but summer traffic has exposed capacity pressures at busy airports. Air France-KLM and KLM have been among the airlines dealing with knock-on effects to connection times and passenger flow.
Schiphol has featured prominently in reporting on the disruption, with maximum waits in July reaching about 120 minutes in some data sets. Frankfurt, Munich and Amsterdam have also been singled out in accounts citing year-on-year increases in peak delays. The operational workaround of suspending biometric checks at times of heavy congestion may ease queues in the short term, but it also highlights the strain the system is placing on airport planning during the peak travel season.