Ryanair warns of 'queue chaos' for Irish holidaymakers amid new rules at European airports
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Ryanair’s COO said “Passengers and families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system”
Irish holidaymakers have been warned to prepare for delays across several airports in Europe as a result of new EU border checks.
Ryanair has said airports which are particularly struggling with the Entry/Exit System (EES) are Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante and Malaga, all in Spain; Milan Bergamo in Italy; Krakow in Poland; and France’s Paris Beauvais.
The Irish airline has said the biometric passport checks, which require many non-EU travellers to provide fingerprints and facial scans, are leading to lengthy queues at airports.
Ryanair 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”.
The budget carrier has described the system as “half-baked” and has urged European governments to suspend the rollout of EES until September to avoid passengers suffering long and avoidable passport control queues, missed flights and increased stress while travelling.
The EES was introduced to replace traditional passport stamping and digitally record the entry and exit of non-EU citizens travelling within the Shengen Area.
Ryanair is advising passengers travelling between Schengen and non-Schengen destinations this summer to arrive at airports earlier than usual, as it warned families “face passport queue chaos”.
The airline said it has urged the governments of “the most exposed countries” to take action but “there has been zero response to fix this major challenge”.
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Ryanair’s chief operations officer Neal McMahon said:
“As schools break up and Europe enters the busiest travel period of the year, it is clear that EES is still not ready for peak summer volumes.
“Passengers and families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating long queues, missed flights and unnecessary stress at airports this summer.
“It is as simple as postponing EES until September, as other EU countries like Greece have already done.”