THERE’S been a new plea to suspend the new passport checks this summer amid fears of even more chaos this summer.
So far, some airlines have had to leave passengers behind and there are already queues of up to six hours at border control.
The situation is only predicted to get worse with summer holidays on the horizon when millions of Brits including lots of families will be heading abroad.
Passenger numbers are predicted to increase by an extra 40million across Europe in July and August.
As a result, a number of airlines and airports have submitted a letter the president of the European Commission asking to suspend EES checks.
A number of industry groups have said they’ve reached a “critical point”.
They continued: “Passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough.
“Airlines face half-empty planes at gate closing time, while passengers are stuck in border control queues.”
The groups have asked the authority to allow airports to “completely suspend” the EES when “passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border control facilities”.
They’ve said that “immediate intervention” is needed before the situation “deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season”.
There has also been a call for “flexibility’ in September as well.
The Entry Exit System (EES) involves people from third-party countries such as the UK having their biometrics taken to enter the Schengen Area.
The progressive rollout began in October 2025 and has caused a number of problems.
Last month, 150 Ryanair passengers missed their flight from Toulouse to the UK due to queues at border control.
The situation was described as “pure chaos” in queues of up to 500 people.
In another case, passengers returning home from Athens were left stranded when a Ryanair flight left without them.
Up to 50 passengers who were still in the airport queuing through passport control missed their flight to London Luton.
Back in March and outside of the peak travel period, Travel Reporter Alice Penwill queued for three hours to get out of Lanzarote Airport.