EU urged to suspend EES ahead of busy summer period

The European Union (EU) is being called on by airports and airlines to temporarily suspend the Entry/Exit System (EES) to cope with the upcoming busy summer period, or risk “undermining EU reputation” among international travellers.

EU airports and borders under “unsustainable pressure”

The Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, representing airlines and airports, has written an open letter to EU President Ursula von der Leyen, urging the bloc to suspend the EES system over the busy summer travel period.

The letter explained that while the peak travel period is yet to begin, “passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough.”

The EES was fully implemented on April 10, 2026, and requires non-EU citizens to log their passport details and biometric data when they initially enter any EU or Shengen Area country, before proceeding to passport control.

According to ACI Europe, passengers have faced waits of up to five hours to log their information at the EES control point, some planes have had to delay takeoff to wait for passengers and other flights have seen “half-empty planes at gate closing time”. 

The new system also applies to members of the Schengen Area, including Switzerland, but anyone with a Swiss passport or residence permit is exempt. Passengers have still been feeling delays, with queues of up to 2,5 hours at the border reported in several airports in Switzerland since the official EES rollout. 

EES should be suspended in July and August

After highlighting the disruption already caused at borders across the EU, the letter went on to ask the EU to “completely suspend” EES checks during July and August if “passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border control facilities”.

Since the EES was partially rolled out in October 2025 and fully implemented in April 2026, there have already been several instances where checks have been suspended.

In May, EES checks were temporarily suspended by French authorities at the Dover port, airports in Rome have now suspended checks until after summer, and British citizens travelling to Greece are exempt from checks until September.

ACI Europe called for an “immediate intervention” before the “situation deteriorates further” and said that the chaos of the current system was “undermining Europe’s reputation” among international tourists and putting confidence in the EU and its regulatory framework “at stake”. 

With 40 million more passengers expected to travel through EU airports in July and August than in the two months prior, the group urged the Commission to “take stock of the reality of the current situation”.

This article was originally published on IamExpat in Germany.