EU EES declared a systemic failure by airline groups

Airlines for Europe called the EU Entry-Exit System a systemic failure on 14 April 2026 after the first week of full operations across 29 Schengen countries produced passenger queues of two to four hours at airports, widespread missed flights and stranded passengers. The EasyJet flight from Milan Linate to Manchester on 12 April departed with 122 passengers still in border queues, held for nearly an hour before crew hours limits forced departure. Portugal suspended biometric collection at Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports on 11 April before restarting in the afternoon. A4E demanded the European Commission allow full and partial suspension of EES through the end of summer, calling three-hour queues not a teething issue but structural failure. The Commission defended the system, citing 70-second average registration times at capacity, and noted member states retain a 90-day partial suspension option. EES is now the largest live biometric border system in the world by geographic scope, logging fingerprints and facial images of non-EU travellers across the eu-LISA central database.