If you’re heading to Spain, Portugal, France, Italy or Greece this summer – whether for a viewing trip or to check on your property – the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) is worth knowing about before you fly. Since coming into full effect in April, it has been causing significant queues at Schengen Area airports, and some passengers have missed their flights entirely as a result.
The EES requires non-EU travellers, including British and American passport holders, to have fingerprints and facial recognition data recorded each time they cross into or out of the Schengen zone. For airports handling thousands of passengers a day, that’s a substantial additional burden on border control.
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What’s been happening at airports
Delays of up to five hours have been reported at some Schengen gateways, with Ryanair naming Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante, Malaga, Bergamo, Krakow and Paris Beauvais among the worst affected – all popular with British travellers. The Port of Dover has also seen queues of up to four and a half hours for cross-Channel travel. In one widely reported incident, a flight from Milan to Manchester departed with around a third of its expected passengers after more than 120 travellers failed to clear passport control in time – despite having arrived with what would normally have been adequate buffer.
The disruption has escalated since early summer. Airline and airport bodies asked the European Commission to allow a temporary suspension of EES during peak periods, but on 8 July 2026 the Commission confirmed this would not happen, saying the checks make Europe safer even as it works to fix problem locations. A temporary flexibility measure that lets some countries ease border checks during exceptional queues is currently due to end on 6 September 2026, so it’s worth checking for updates if you’re travelling into autumn.
One of the complicating factors is how unpredictable the delays are. Processing times vary depending on airport infrastructure, staffing levels on the day and how many travellers are going through biometric registration for the first time. Unlike security queues, which frequent travellers tend to read fairly well, EES queues are harder to anticipate.
What to do differently this summer
The practical advice is simple, even if it runs against the habits of experienced travellers: treat passport control as your first destination after check-in, not your last.
Arriving three hours before departure – once considered more than generous – has proven insufficient at some airports this season. If you’re travelling with family, or with anyone who may need additional assistance at the border, build in more time still.
It’s also worth checking whether your departure airport offers a pre-registration option for biometric processing before you travel, particularly if you have a connecting flight.
First-time EES registration is the slowest part of the process – once you’re in the system, re-entry checks are much quicker. If your route offers a pre-registration app before travel, it’s worth using it.
Why this matters for property buyers
Viewing trips, completion trips and handover visits all tend to run to tight schedules, with onward journeys, hotel check-ins and meetings booked around specific flights. A missed departure doesn’t just mean a later arrival – it can mean rearranging appointments, paying rebooking fees and losing a day on the ground.
Summary
In short: allow more time than you think you need at the border this summer, and plan your airport visit accordingly.
