ANOTHER nine airports across Europe are at risk of massive queues this summer, Ryanair has warned.
The long wait times at airports are being caused by the rollout of the EES system, which now requires biometric checks from Britons.
Not only does this take longer, but slow, broken or even a lack of machines has seen passengers even miss their flights due to the long queue times at the airport.
Ryanair has already warned to expect longer queues at the following airports:
- Tenerife South
- Palma
- Alicante
- Malaga
- Milan Bergamo
- Krakow
- Paris Beauvais
But it has since warned of more airports that have already seen huge delays.
These include:
- Lisbon
- Lanzarote
- Madrid
- Milan Malpensa
- Verona
- Budapest
- Berlin
- Cologne
- Frankfurt Hahn
Ryanair is now calling for more flexibility from the EU to be extended to 2027, which allows countries to pause EES checks if there are high volumes of passengers.
The airline has said that not only do many airports still not have fully-functioning self-service kiosks, but they called border staffing and infrastructure “inadequate”.
Passengers are being advised to allow extra time to get through the airport, after some passengers waited more than three hours already.
And Rafael Schvartzman, vice-president for Europe at the International Air Transport Association (Iata) warned queue times could stretch to as much as six hours.
Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, said: “Families heading away for a well-earned summer holiday should be thinking about suitcases, suncream and sangria, not standing in passport queues for hours.
“The reality is that the EES system isn’t working properly and families are paying the price for a system that does not work months after launch.
“Passengers should not be the testing ground for unfished border infrastructure.”
Last month, 150 Ryanair passengers missed their flight from Toulouse, France to the UK due to queues of up to 500 people in the airport.
In another case, around 50 passengers returning home from Athens recently missed their flight as they were still queuing through the airport.
Travel Reporter Alice Penwill recently also queued for three hours to get out of Lanzarote Airport.