Overview
- Airport chiefs and major carriers stepped up calls on Saturday for the EU to pause EES until September, saying the system is not ready for peak summer travel volumes.
- Ryanair named Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Krakow and Paris Beauvais among worst‑hit airports and urged governments to postpone the rollout to avoid missed flights and long queues.
- The Port of Dover warned of repeated severe congestion after declaring a critical incident in May and said a purpose‑built £40m processing facility cannot be used because EES kiosks are inoperable.
- Operators say the delays stem from a mix of problems: kiosks that are switched off or still in packaging, national software connectors that do not integrate smoothly with the central system, and an EES workflow that adds biometric steps and lengthens per‑passenger processing time.
- Brussels has rejected a blanket suspension but has agreed to talks; Frontex confirmed limited six‑hour national flexibility will end at the start of September and officials say full stabilisation could take months to years even as EES has already flagged about 7,000 overstayers.