Ryanair warns EES checks are causing major queues at 7 EU airports

Disruption overview

Ryanair says the EU's new Entry/Exit System, or EES, is already creating major queues at 7 airports in Spain, Italy, Poland, and France as summer travel picks up. The airline says non-EU passengers are missing flights at Tenerife South, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante–Elche, Málaga–Costa del Sol, Milan Bergamo, Kraków John Paul II, and Paris Beauvais because fingerprint and facial-image checks are taking too long. The European Commission has scheduled an urgent meeting for 7 July 2026 and says countries can temporarily switch off EES checkpoints if lines become unmanageable. Because the disruption sits with border control rather than the airline, compensation under EC 261 is usually unlikely, but airlines should still provide care, assistance, and rerouting when your journey is affected.

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Disruption details

Ryanair warned on 2 July 2026 that the EU's new Entry/Exit System, known as EES, is already causing major queues at 7 airports in Spain, Italy, Poland, and France as the July and August vacation rush builds. For passengers, that has meant longer waits at border control, missed departures, and some flights leaving without travelers who couldn't complete passport checks in time.

The airline says the worst disruption is currently being seen at:

• Tenerife South Airport, Spain

• Palma de Mallorca Airport, Spain

• Alicante–Elche Airport, Spain

• Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport, Spain

• Milan Bergamo Airport, Italy

• Kraków John Paul II International Airport, Poland

• Paris Beauvais Airport, France

These delays affect non-EU travelers, who now have to register fingerprints and a facial image at the border. Ryanair says several airports still don't have the capacity to process peak summer volumes smoothly under the new system.

That matters most for people traveling close to departure time or trying to move quickly through busy terminals. Ryanair says some passengers are missing their flights altogether, while others are reaching the gate too late for boarding.

In response, Ryanair has asked the European Commission to suspend EES at the most exposed airports until at least September. The airline argues that passengers shouldn't be used to test a system that still isn't coping well with holiday traffic.

Pressure is also growing from across the aviation industry. Airlines for Europe and Airports Council International have separately urged European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to pause the rollout through July and August, and possibly for another year, warning that frontline staff are already dealing with abuse from frustrated travelers and that operational pressure is likely to rise.

The European Commission has now called an urgent meeting with airlines, airports, and national border authorities for Tuesday, 7 July 2026. It has also reminded member states that they can temporarily switch off EES checkpoints during the summer if queues become unmanageable, and said extra EU border officers can be sent where needed, as happened recently at Lisbon Airport.

At the same time, the Commission says average processing times are around 70 seconds and that the impact has been limited at most gateways. Even so, airports, airlines, and IATA want more time before full continuous use becomes mandatory from September 2026, and are pushing for a delay to summer 2027 instead.

EES finally went live in October 2025 after years of delays as part of the EU's plan to tighten Schengen border checks. Ireland and Cyprus are exempt because they are outside Schengen, but the remaining member states will eventually have to run the system continuously.

Similar pressure has already been seen elsewhere. Non-EU passengers have faced queues of up to 2 hours at Berlin Brandenburg, and there have also been accounts of UK vacationers missing flights as border lines grow longer.

Because this disruption is tied to government border controls rather than an airline's own operations, compensation under EC 261 is usually unlikely.

Although compensation is unlikely here, that doesn't mean you're without support. If your journey is affected, especially after you've checked in, your airline should still help with care and assistance, such as food and drinks during long waits, hotel accommodation if you're stranded overnight, and rerouting or a refund where the rules apply. If you want to understand what applies to your flight, you can still use AirHelp's free flight checker.

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