Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Thurs, 30 Apr) called on the French Govt to suspend the rollout of the EU’s passport control Entry/Exit System (EES) until September to ensure that passengers – many of whom are travelling on holiday with young families – are not needlessly forced to suffer long passport control queue delays at French airports during the peak summer season.

Despite knowing for over three years that EES would become fully operational from 10 April 2026, the French authorities have failed to ensure adequate staffing, system readiness or kiosks are in place. As a result, passengers are suffering long passport control queues and, in some cases, missing their flights. Long queue times for passengers are already in excess of 1-2 hours at Beauvais, Marseille, and Nantes airports, where a lack of staff and system outages continue to cause unnecessary disruption to our passengers.

Meanwhile, other EU countries are adopting a more pragmatic approach – like Greece, where the Govt has suspended EES to September in order to manage peak summer queues.

Ryanair has written to Govts across the 29 EES countries – including Minister Laurent Nunez – urging them to suspend EES until Sept – as Greece has already done – and ensure smooth airport operations for passengers this summer.

Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon said,

“Govts across Europe are attempting to roll out a half-baked IT system in the middle of the busiest travel season of the year, and passengers are paying the price, being forced to endure hours long passport control queues and in some cases, missing flights.

The solution is simple and already provided for under EU law (EU Reg. 2025/1534) – Govts should suspend EES until September when the peak summer travel season has subsided, just as Greece has done. This would allow passengers – many of whom are travelling with young families – a smoother airport experience for their summer holidays.”