Traveling to Europe quickly? The EU Entry/Exit System could go away you ready — or stranded

The EU Entry/Exit System launched this month, and a few vacationers are already dealing with prolonged delays and disruptions when coming into European and Schengen Area international locations. In a couple of instances, these delays have led to missed flights: More than 100 passengers had been unable to board an EasyJet flight from Milan to Manchester after getting caught in passport management traces, whereas a Ryanair flight along the same route left about 30 passengers behind for a similar motive.

According to BBC reporting, passengers are dealing with wait instances of as much as three hours at border management and for some, this has resulted in missed flights and dear rebooking complications. Yahoo checked in with the journey specialists at Cadence Travel to learn how individuals can finest put together for his or her European excursions proper now, contemplating this new stumbling block.

What is the EES?

The EES is a brand new border verify system that replaces conventional passport stamping with fashionable biometrics. It launched on April 10, 2026, and applies to non-EU nationals touring to or from the EU and the Schengen Area. Instead of receiving a bodily passport stamp, vacationers should now present facial imaging and fingerprints, which might be used to trace all future entries and exits to and from collaborating international locations.

For a extra detailed take a look at this system, see our full EES explainer.

The EES is new, and the rollout hasn’t been easy

Prior to this system’s launch, vacationers and journey advisors alike anticipated it to create minimal delays. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case to date. “The roll-out isn’t as smooth as hoped,” says Vanessa Allen, director of promoting and communications at Cadence Travel. The rollout of this system has been “uneven,” she says, “as any new tech implementation process is likely to be, especially across different countries.”

Unfortunately, “uneven” could also be a bit beneficiant: European airports and airways have reported “significant disruption to their operations, with passengers facing long delays — in some cases missing flights — since the EU digital border control system became fully operational,” according to the BBC. A separate BBC report notes that the introduction of this system has been “more successful in some parts of Europe than others.” The worst delays have affected France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Greece to this point, according to the Guardian.

How to reduce EES delays when touring to Europe

According to the official EES website, some vacationers could possibly decrease wait instances by utilizing devoted self-service kiosks (obtainable at sure airports) to register their biometric knowledge. The website additionally suggests utilizing the Travel to Europe mobile app to pre-register sure data. Unfortunately, the app is at the moment solely obtainable to vacationers coming into Sweden and Portugal, although it might increase to extra international locations sooner or later. It’s additionally unclear whether or not utilizing self-service registration kiosks can meaningfully cut back wait instances at this level, contemplating the quantity of vacationers awaiting registration.

Instead, journey specialists advocate completely different methods: “Check with online sources for updates from any airport you’re arriving at or leaving from,” says Allen. “Allow as much extra time as possible to minimize your stress levels, and pack your patience!” Patience is basically the important thing proper now, since there’s no surefire technique to get rid of the dangers of EES-related delays with out avoiding European journey altogether.

Chardell Robinson, vice chairman of company account administration at Cadence Travel, says that regardless of these short-term complications and delays, the EES will create “a much more streamlined process” in the long term. Once you submit your biometrics, you shouldn’t have to take action once more transferring ahead. The further wait time ought to solely have an effect on your first expertise of crossing a European or Schengen Area border below the brand new program.