\n<\/p>\n
Some travellers passing through the new EU entry-exit system (EES) have faced huge delays at border checks, with some waiting for up to three hours, airports say.<\/p>\n
The new rules have gradually been introduced in Europe since October 2025, and came into effect on 10 April in the Schengen countries \u2013 25 of the EU\u2019s 27 states plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people responded to a Guardian online callout to share their experiences of travelling to Europe since the rules came into effect. Though some said they had a problem-free journey, many reported severe delays, which have caused some to miss their flights.<\/p>\n
Travellers described problems with fingerprints not being accepted and additional delays when travelling with children. Many said there was little guidance on using the kiosks. Some also said they had to repeat the registration process on each leg of their journey, despite having already completed it, with no explanations from staff \u2013 or no staff available to ask.<\/p>\n
Dave Giles, 47, an IT manager from Raunds in Northamptonshire, missed his flight home on 12 April from Copenhagen, where he had been to a music festival with his family, after being caught in long queues at passport control despite arriving hours early.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Dave Giles (right) and his daughter, Imogen, with Giacomo Voli of Rhapsody of Fire, one of the bands at the festival they attended in Copenhagen.<\/span> Photograph: Dave Giles<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they called the gate and we got down towards passport control, there was a queue of probably 80 to 100 people in front of us and only three kiosks checking passports,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore long, one of those closed.\u201d<\/p>\n Staff appeared aware of the issue, but were unable to resolve it in time. \u201cA supervisor was making calls asking them to hold the gate open,\u201d he said, but by the time he reached the front, \u201cthe gate had been closed a few seconds before we arrived\u201d.<\/p>\n The disruption left him significantly out of pocket, forcing him to buy new flights for the following day, find accommodation for that night and pay extra parking charges at Stansted. He also had to hire a car and drive from Heathrow to Stansted, as the only available flight landed there. \u201cWe\u2019ve got receipts for about \u00a31,800 \u2013 it\u2019s probably over \u00a32,000 in total. It\u2019s extremely frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n Giles said he did not expect to see that money again. \u201cInsurance won\u2019t touch it. The airline said it wasn\u2019t their fault,\u201d he said, adding that he had emailed the airport. \u201cI\u2019d be surprised to get a reply from anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Georgia, from London, experienced a four-hour delay on arrival at Pisa airport on 10 April. \u201cThere were no staff in sight to advise on waiting times,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For Georgia, who is five months pregnant, it was an arduous wait. \u201cThere were people with infants but no special assistance available, or any seating. People in the back of the queue became very hot, stuck in a windowless corridor for hours.<\/p>\n \u201cI sat on the floor and had to tell the people around me I was pregnant and to give me some space because I was almost fainting. They were handing out water, but only when you got to the very front of the queue, which was about four hours in.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she was now apprehensive about travelling in Europe again. \u201cI was meant to fly to Paris this weekend with my husband, but I\u2019ve cancelled the trip just because I couldn\u2019t face it again. I have a trip to Greece coming up, but I saw that they\u2019re now not following the new system, which was amazing news.\u201d<\/p>\n Stuart MacLennan, 49, from Oban in Scotland, found travelling with children particularly difficult. He flew from Glasgow to M\u00e1laga on 11 April, where he was met with long queues as a number of flights had arrived at the same time. This delay was a \u201cnightmare\u201d, Stuart says.<\/p>\n He and his wife had to wait with their children, aged one and seven. \u201cThere was no real direction as to where to go,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter about half an hour, we were moved into a different line because we had children under the age of 12. We then queued for two-and-a-half hours before we eventually got to passport control.\u201d<\/p>\n His return journey from M\u00e1laga four days later was worse, with a queue of three-and-a-half hours for those with under-12s. Like Georgia, he wants to avoid the system in future. \u201cIt would put me off travelling back to busier European airports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Other travellers said the self-service kiosks meant to be used to process their registrations had been either not yet in use or not working.<\/p>\n <\/span>Dylan Thomas experienced delays on two trips.<\/span> Photograph: Dylan Thomas<\/p>\n Dylan Thomas, 23, an HR associate from Lincolnshire, experienced delays using the system on two recent trips. He said there had been a two-hour wait on arrival in Madeira on 15 March and on his return journey from a solo trip to Brussels on the Eurostar on 6 April.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201cThere must have been about 20 machines, but they all had plastic wrapping on them and couldn\u2019t be used \u2026 There was only one person manually checking everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Coleman, a retired volunteer from Southend-on-Sea, said staff at Krak\u00f3w airport in early February had resorted to using their own mobile phones. He and his wife, Nicolette, faced a three-hour wait at passport control.<\/p>\n <\/span>Paul Coleman and his wife, Nicolette, in Krak\u00f3w.<\/span> Photograph: Paul Coleman<\/p>\n \u201cThe cameras on the machines weren\u2019t working, so they got their mobile phones out and took pictures of us. It was just crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was no explanation of what the hold-up was, no apology.\u201d<\/p>\n Delays could have a particular impact on elderly people, said David, 75, from Durham. On a trip to Gran Canaria in February, he was kept on the plane for 30 minutes due to the queues at Fuerteventura airport. \u201cThe first single queue was huge, which everyone had to join, even those who had provided their biometrics previously. They should be separate. Better signage, shown earlier, would speed the process up.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had a system where they herd non-EU passport holders into an area with glass partition walls. There\u2019s not enough seats. You\u2019ve got a lot of elderly people standing, with no toilet facilities. If you do have to go to one of the toilets in the other area, you get searched again. It really is a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThe airlines seem to have abdicated any responsibility. They just said: it\u2019s your job to get to the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think the overriding thing is it\u2019s inconsistent,. You\u2019ve got no idea what\u2019s going to happen when you hit these airports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some travellers passing through the new EU entry-exit system (EES) have faced huge delays at border checks, with some waiting for up to three hours, airports say. The new rules have gradually been introduced in Europe since October 2025, and came into effect on 10 April in the Schengen countries \u2013 25 of the EU\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[190,24236,770,1545,4192,6400,22723,1587,392,16009],"class_list":{"0":"post-49035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-airline","9":"tag-entryexit","10":"tag-flights","11":"tag-industry","12":"tag-missed","13":"tag-nightmare","14":"tag-queues","15":"tag-start","16":"tag-system","17":"tag-turbulent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}