Budget airline Ryanair has identified a number of airports where passengers are most likely to experience significant queues under the EU's new Entry/Exit System (EES), warning that some facilities are still unprepared to handle the surge in summer travel.
According to the airline, airports in Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante and Malaga in Spain, Milan Bergamo in Italy, Krakow in Poland, and Paris Beauvais in France are struggling to cope with the new border procedures.
Ryanair said these airports are "not ready" to manage peak summer passenger numbers because of "insufficient staff, kiosks and system readiness."
The Entry/Exit System, which was fully rolled out in April, requires travellers from non-EU countries, including the United Kingdom, to have their fingerprints scanned and a photograph taken when entering the Schengen Area. The Schengen zone comprises 29 European countries that have removed internal border controls.
For most British travellers, the registration process takes place upon arrival at airports within the Schengen Area. It is also carried out at key UK departure points, including the Port of Dover, Eurotunnel's Folkestone terminal and London St Pancras International station.
Ryanair is now urging passengers travelling between Schengen and non-Schengen destinations to allow extra time before their flights, warning that families could face "passport queue chaos" during the busy holiday period.
The Dublin-based airline has also called on European governments to delay the implementation of the system until after the peak travel season.
It urged authorities to "suspend the rollout" of EES until September to prevent travellers from enduring "long and avoidable passport control queues."
According to Ryanair, appeals made to governments in the countries expected to be most affected have so far produced little progress.
The airline said it had contacted the governments of "the most exposed countries" but added that "there has been zero response to fix this major challenge."
Ryanair's Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, said the system is simply not prepared for the volume of travellers expected during the summer holidays.
"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."
He added:
"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."
McMahon argued that postponing the system would be the most practical solution, saying:
"It is as simple as postponing EES until September, as other EU countries like Greece have already done."
Concerns over the new border checks extend beyond airports.
The Chief Executive of the Port of Dover, Doug Bannister, has warned that the UK's busiest ferry port could experience severe disruption throughout the summer unless greater flexibility is introduced into the operation of EES.
He predicted that the port would "face repeated episodes of severe congestion" and warned that traffic queues could become significantly worse.
According to Bannister, vehicles waiting to pass through border controls risk "spilling out of the port onto the public highway for miles," adding that "the local impact could be dire."
The Port of Dover declared a critical incident during the May half-term holiday after waiting times stretched to four-and-a-half hours.
In a letter to the House of Commons' Business and Trade Committee, Bannister noted that the disruption occurred on a day when around 8,500 tourist vehicles passed through the port. He warned that daily traffic is expected to exceed 12,000 vehicles during the height of the summer travel season.
He also highlighted the port's preparations for the new system, revealing that £40 million had been invested in a dedicated passenger processing facility designed to reduce congestion.
However, Bannister said the facility is not operating as intended because of the "inoperability of the EES kiosk technology," an issue he stressed is "completely beyond the control of the port."
With millions of travellers expected to cross European borders in the coming weeks, airlines and transport operators are urging authorities to resolve the operational issues quickly to avoid widespread delays and disruption during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.