British travellers heading to Europe this summer could face waits of up to six hours at passport control, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) cautioned, as the European Union’s new digital border system strains under peak-season crowds, ETIAS.com has reported. The Entry/Exit System (EES) has been fully operational across the Schengen Area since April 10. Two months in, it is producing long lines, missed flights, and growing alarm across the travel industry. Airports Council International Europe said that waits of up to three and a
half hours have already been recorded during peak periods. The six-hour figure is IATA’s projection for the busiest summer months. Research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) puts numbers on the threat. Up to 41 million visitor arrivals and $45.4 billion in spending could be lost if delays of three hours or more become routine, the council warned. The findings come from a May 2026 survey of 2,512 travelers in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. About one-third said regular three-to-four-hour waits would
make them much less likely to visit the Schengen Area, or stop them from visiting altogether. British travellers are the most sensitive, with 39% saying that they would be much less likely to travel. The figure is 33% for Americans and Canadians and 27% for Australians. Awareness is another problem. More than half of those surveyed (55%) have heard little or nothing about EES, and 49% do not know what the border will require of them. The disruption has spread across airports, ports, and rail
terminals since May. Congestion has been reported in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Netherlands, with Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Lisbon, and Frankfurt among the affected hubs. In one incident, more than 100 passengers reportedly missed a flight from Milan to Manchester after getting stuck in passport queues. Ryanair, easyJet, and Jet2 have all warned of missed departures, disrupted schedules, and rising operational costs. Wizz Air has told British passengers to arrive three hours before their flights. At the Port of Dover,
French border authorities temporarily suspended some biometric checks in May after waits passed two hours during the half-term holiday. EU rules allow countries to pause checks to ease queues at peak times, but that allowance is expected to end in September. Frontex said that there are no plans to extend it. Trade groups want operational changes rather than a retreat from the system. ABTA and Airlines UK, joined by US and Canadian counterparts, have written to every Schengen country, the European Commission, and UK embassies.
Their requests: use the available contingency measures, staff borders adequately, expand e-gate use, and push wider adoption of the Travel to Europe pre-registration app. They also want the contingency window extended at least to the end of the IATA summer season in late October. WTTC had its own priority list. It called for faster adoption of the Travel to Europe app, a coordinated information campaign in the UK, the US, Australia, and Canada, and operational readiness at every border crossing. Better triaging could help, too,
the trade bodies argued, by separating travelers who have already registered from those who have not. Queues of an hour or more persist at many destinations during busy periods, though ABTA noted that many travelers are still getting away with minimal disruption.
Britons, Schengen, EES, Entry/Exit System, passport queues, IATA, WTTC, ABTA, Airlines UK, Travel to Europe app, Frontex, Dover biometric checks