On Sunday, 6 September, the European Union's Entry/Exit System (EES) will lose its emergency flexibility measures, ending a period during which member states could temporarily suspend biometric data collection to ease congestion. The move has sparked concerns among travel industry bodies that border chaos could return at airports and other crossing points across the continent.
The EES, which became fully operational on 10 April 2026 after a phased rollout starting in October 2025, requires non-EU travellers to provide fingerprints and facial scans when entering or exiting the Schengen area. During the transition, EU rules allowed countries to pause these biometric checks at individual border crossings when passenger volumes became so high that waiting times became excessive. That safety valve will now expire.
At a press briefing on 1 September, a European Commission spokesperson said the EES had “broadly worked well” over the summer, while acknowledging that “the advantages of the new system for the EU are evident.” The spokesperson added that the Commission is in “close and constructive contact with those few member states where some adjustments are needed at certain border crossing points,” and stressed that “there is a strong joint will to make the system work everywhere.”
However, industry experts are less sanguine. Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA, the UK travel trade association, said: “We continue to push the European Commission to allow these measures to be used beyond September, recognising that there is still some way to go until EES is fully and consistently operational across all participating countries.”
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also called for an extension. According to IATA, standard passport checks that previously took around 20 to 25 seconds now require about 90 seconds under the EES. Data from the Financial Times and travel analytics group Qsensor shows that average wait times at Frankfurt airport reached 120 minutes in July, up from 60 minutes the same month last year. Munich saw waits rise from 31 to 60 minutes, while Amsterdam's maximum waiting times jumped from 80 to 120 minutes.
Thomas Reynaert, IATA's Senior Vice President for External Affairs, said at a media briefing this week: “Extending the possibility of partial suspension beyond 6 September is absolutely necessary until the end of the winter season.” He stressed that the association is “fully supportive of EES” but that certain conditions should be met before flexibilities are removed.
For travellers, the end of flexibility means planning for longer waits. Jurgen Himmelmann, co-founder and CEO of Global Work & Travel, advises building significantly more time into journeys involving European border controls. “Getting to the airport early is sensible, but there is a limit to how much control that gives you,” he says. “Bag-drop desks may not be open four hours before departure, and once you're in a passport-control queue, you can't simply skip ahead because your flight is boarding.” He recommends avoiding journeys planned around minimum connection times over the next few weeks, as “a connection that looks perfectly reasonable on paper can become uncomfortable very quickly if you lose an hour or more at the border.”
The EES is part of a broader effort to modernise Europe's external borders, but its rollout has been uneven. Some member states have struggled with technical glitches and staffing shortages, leading to inconsistent application. The end of the flexibility measures could exacerbate these issues, particularly at major hubs like Frankfurt, Munich, and Amsterdam, which handle large volumes of non-EU passengers.
As the system matures, the European Commission insists that the benefits—such as faster automated checks and better tracking of overstayers—will outweigh the teething problems. Yet for now, travellers and industry alike are bracing for a bumpy autumn. The situation is reminiscent of the broader challenges facing Schengen cooperation, where internal checks have become more common amid migration pressures.
For those planning trips, the advice is clear: arrive early, allow extra time for connections, and keep an eye on the latest updates. The end of the EES flexibility is a reminder that Europe's border regime is still in transition, and that patience will be required until the system is fully ironed out.
