Travel chaos prompts renewed EU vows to resolve border checks

FILE - Travelers wait in long lines outside the terminal building to check in and board flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

The EU will ramp up efforts to resolve the bloc’s new border check system issues, migration chief Magnus Brunner wrote in a letter seen by AFP Sunday after airports and airlines blamed it for disruption.

The European aviation industry warned in a joint letter Wednesday that the new Entry/Exit System (EES) was causing wait times of up to five hours, calling on the EU to act now to prevent summer travel chaos.

The European Commission “will now make additional efforts to help those member states that still encounter issues”, Brunner said in the letter dated July 3.

The new system replaces manual passport stamping and records travellers’ personal and biometric data to track overstays and refusals of entry.

The EES is used by EU nations -- except for Ireland and Cyprus -- and other nations that are part of the Schengen free movement area, including Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.

Brunner was replying to a joint letter signed by the ACI Europe airports group, the A4E association of European airlines, and the International Air Transport Association bringing together over 360 airlines worldwide.

They demanded an “immediate intervention before the situation deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season” and called for countries to be able to fully suspend the new checks during periods of heavy traffic.

Brunner said the EES rules already anticipated early challenges and allowed flexibility during the 2026 summer holiday season until early September, like suspending the registration of biometrics.

He said therefore other factors unrelated to the EES could be the cause of delays, like insufficient staff or lack of adequate infrastructure.

Since October 2025, 110 million people have entered or exited the EU with this new system -- with over 44,000 people prevented entry, Brunner wrote -- the vast majority because of a lack of the right travel document or visa.

An EU official said at a large majority of the 1,500 border crossing points, the system worked without any issues.

Brunner defended the new checks that are “making Europe safer, every day” and stressed they had been “rolled out carefully and gradually”.

The commissioner will meet industry representatives on July 7.