The EU's new digital border scheme cannot be about mayhem for travellers and chaos at airports, a group says.

12:35, Fri, Dec 19, 2025 Updated: 12:38, Fri, Dec 19, 2025

A police officer in Portugal sits at a control booth supervising automated passport control machines for arriving passengers

Travellers are having to wait up to three hours at peak periods, ACI says. (Image: Getty)

The European Union's new border control checks are causing waiting times of up to three hours and risk chaos at airports, according to an industry body. Airports Council International's European arm said airports in France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and Spain were especially impacted by the bloc's Schengen Entry-Exit System (EES), which was launched on October 12.

Airports Council International (ACI) has urged Brussels to address the "mounting operational issues" plaguing the rollout of the scheme, which is due to be completed by April 10. Under EES, non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay have a photo taken of their face and/or their fingerprints scanned. Some data collected under EES can be registered in advance.

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ACI stated that the scaling up of the scheme has resulted in airport border control processing times increasing by up to 70%, with waits of up to three hours during peak periods. Currently, only 10% of travellers are required to register under the scheme, though this is due to rise.

The airports group identifies a series of issues with the scheme, including "regular" system failures, problems with self-service kiosks and automated border control gates not being available for EES processing.

ACI also says an "effective" app where travellers can register before setting out on their journeys is unavailable, and there aren't enough border guards to manage the scheme on the ground.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe, said "significant" discomfort is being inflicted on travellers.

He added: "Unless all the operational issues we are raising today (Wednesday) are fully resolved within the coming weeks, increasing this registration threshold to 35% as of January 9 - as required by the EES implementation calendar - will inevitably result in much more severe congestion and systemic disruption for airports and airlines.

Mr Jankovec warned this would "possibly" involve serious safety hazards. He added: "We fully understand and support the importance of the EES and remain fully committed to its implementation.

"But the EES cannot be about mayhem for travellers and chaos at our airports. If the current operational issues cannot be addressed and the system stabilised by early January, we will need swift action from the European Commission and Schengen member states to allow additional flexibility in its rollout."

The European Commission has been approached for comment.