Las major airlines y European airports They denounced this Wednesday the “unsustainable pressure” that they claim to face for the full application of the new digitized system for him control of the outer border of the UE (EESfor its acronym in English). For this reason, they have urged the European Commission to allow your suspension at least during the summer campaign to avoid long lines at airports, delays and missed connections due to passengers stuck at the checkpoint.
“Since the full implementation of the EES in April, the waiting times at border controls they have significantly increasednow reaching until 5 hours during peak traffic periods. These delays are affecting millions of passengers that enter the Schengen area”, they denounce in a letter addressed to the president of the community Executive, Ursula von der Leyenhe Airports Council International (ACI), Airlines across Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATAfor its acronym in English).
The mechanism that allows automated registration of the passage of people should have been initially implemented no later than November of last yearbut Brussels offered a extension until April 2026 in light of the delay by airports and national authorities in getting the system up and running. In their writing, the airlines and airports recognize the “vital role” of the new system—based on automatic collection of biometric data of non-European citizens entering and leaving the Union—and defend that they have worked hand in hand with Brussels and invested significantly in resources and personnel to be prepared.
“Critical moment”
However, the sector warns that it has reached a “critical moment” because the implementation of the model is causing “serious operational consequences inconvenience for passengers and placing authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure” and, therefore, they demand a “immediate intervention” before the situation deteriorates further due to the peak of movements expected in the summer campaign.
This being the case, they claim Von der Leyen’s Executive two urgent lines of actionthe first of them for allow to the States members the “necessary flexibility” to power”suspend completely the EES system preventively” if the influx of passengers exceeds the operational capacity of the infrastructure “at least for julio y August”.
Secondly, airlines and airports call on Brussels to designin collaboration with authorities and industry, a “permanent mechanism of operational flexibility” that allows border authorities suspend digitized control in situations “exceptional clearly defined”, in order to guarantee “efficient and passenger-focused” management. This mechanism, they add, should be ready before until the month of September.
Traditional system
However, the signatories of the letter to Brussels affirm that their demands “do not imply the absence of border control”, but rather that it be allowed to return to the standardized traditional system for Schengen, which includes passport stamping, when the suspension of the EES be “necessary and is justified” by a high flow of passengers or technical difficulties in controlling it.
In addition, they maintain that the flexibility to suspend the new digitalized model should be possible in the medium term until it is ensured that the infrastructure they have a sufficient provision of personnel, stabilize y with guarantee the reliability of the EES central platform and the national interfaces. They also consider it important that fully deployed in all European airports machines where the passenger himself can carry out the control automatically and install the passage doors.
