Major airport boss urges EU switch off as 'design flaw' blamed for border chaos

A major airport boss has urged the European Union to switch off its new border check system, as a “design flaw”, is blamed for seriously long delays.

Under the new EU entry/exit system (EES), travellers from non-EU nations, including Britain, are required to undergo fingerprint scanning and have their photographs captured to gain access to the Schengen Area. The Schengen Area is a massive, border-free travel zone encompassing 29 European countries.

While major carriers and sector organisations generally view the digital scheme as an essential long-term measure, noting that the UK, US, and Australia already utilise similar electronic borders, the system has successfully identified 7,000 individuals who exceeded their permitted stay since being implemented.

However, the head of one of Europe’s largest airports has warned that the border check system should be turned off indefinitely until its problems are fixed. He added that its design is causing the chaotic delays.

Chief executive of Aeroporti di Roma, Marco Troncone, explained that processing at the border has “doubled” since the initial rollout in April

He told The Times: “We managed to optimise the process on our end, bringing this to 90 seconds [down from two minutes], but it is still too high. This is, of course, not compatible with 50,000-60,000 passengers every day.”

Airlines operating from the UK have named airports including Lanzarote, Tenerife South, Malaga, Porto, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Krakow, Paris CDG, Rome, Palma, Malta, Menorca, Milan Linate and Malpensa, Naples and Budapest as being particularly bad for queues this summer.

Troncone continued: “The problem is related to the way this process has been designed. It’s not a matter of implementation.” He said the operational design was developed with “limited input from airport operators, despite the fact that airports are the ones managing passenger flows every day.”

Rome Fiumicino has dished out a whopping €12million (£10million) preparing for the new entry/ exit system (EES.

Across the 29 countries in the Schengen area, responsibility lies with different government departments in different countries, and the technology has been designed and rolled out by different providers in different countries.

Issues have arisen after some EU member states attempted to connect their national software systems to the central EES platform. Meanwhile, some EU countries want to have their own hardware.

On Tuesday, July 7, members of the aviation industry (ACI) will hold crisis talks with the EC to discuss EES, which is causing disruption in hotspots including Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Greece.

Troncone has supported calls from the industry body ACI Europe, which acts for the continent’s airports, to have the European Commission (EC) put the brakes on the project “at least through July and August”.

Beginning in September, ACI is seeking the power to halt the EES indefinitely during “exceptional circumstances” until “structural challenges” are resolved. Key requirements include sufficient border personnel, reliable technology kiosks, and a system allowing travellers to submit biometric data beforehand once a pre-registration mobile app is available globally. At present, only Sweden and Portugal have implemented this digital tool.

Other major travel hubs, including Amsterdam Schiphol, Naples, and Corfu, have likewise called upon the EC to ease regulations with the peak holiday period now underway. Schiphol Airport, which manages a daily volume of approximately 220,000 travellers, noted that the new EES is “impacting operations at the border, particularly during busy moments”.

Olga Kefalogianni, the Greek tourism minister, has said that EES should be “rethought at a European level”. Meanwhile, the mayor of Naples wrote to the Italian government stating EES “could significantly impact tourism flows”.

Ryanair has also named seven popular European airports where, it said, passengers are suffering long delays because of the EU border checks introduced in April. The airline said these sites are “not ready” to manage the high passenger volumes during the peak summer season because of “insufficient staff, kiosks and system readiness”.

This is set to be the busiest summer on record for air travel, with the number of flights expected to be up 2 per cent from last summer. Around 37,000 flights around Europe are scheduled on the busiest days.