RYANAIR CALLS FOR EMERGENCY EXTENSION TO EES FLEXIBILITIES

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (15 Jul) warned millions of UK families travelling to Europe this summer to prepare for lengthy passport queues and airport delays caused by the EU’s failed Entry/Exit System (EES), which continues to create disruption months after its introduction.

With schools now breaking for summer and passenger volumes reaching peak levels, the failed EES rollout is going to cause unnecessary delays and long queues for UK families.

Ryanair has identified a number of recurring EES hotspots where passengers are experiencing significant delays due to slow processing times and excessive passport control queues on both arrivals and departures. These include Lisbon, Tenerife South, Madrid, Lanzarote, Alicante, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Milan Malpensa, Verona, Paris Beauvais, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt Hahn, Krakow and Budapest – all popular destinations for UK families travelling abroad during the peak summer holiday season.

Months after EES went live, many airports still do not have fully functioning self-service kiosks in place, while border staffing levels and infrastructure remain inadequate to process peak passenger volumes. The result is avoidable delays, longer queues and unnecessary stress for UK passengers travelling during the busiest holiday period of the year.

Ryanair is advising UK passengers travelling to and from non-Schengen destinations, or transiting through affected European airports, to allow extra time for their journey and be prepared for extended waits at passport control, where EES checks may require passport scanning, fingerprint capture and facial image verification.

Ryanair supports calls from EU Member States to urgently extend the current EES flexibilities into early 2027, giving airports and border authorities the time needed to fix malfunctioning kiosks, increase staffing levels and ensure the system can operate efficiently before full enforcement is introduced.

Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, said:

“Families heading away for a well-earned summer holiday should be thinking about suitcases, suncream and sangria, not standing in passport queues for hours. The reality is that the EES system isn’t working properly and families are paying the price for a system that does not work months after launch.  Passengers should not be the testing ground for unfished border infrastructure.

We support calls from EU Member States to urgently extend the EES flexibilities. This will give airports and border authorities the time to improve the infrastructure, fix the broken devices and hire more staff so that families can travel through Europe without disruption.”