Budget airline Ryanair has called on France to suspend new EES border checks ahead of a busy summer season, warning of delays and missed flights.
Low-cost airline Ryanair has called on the French government to suspend new biometric border checks, known as EES, suggesting that they could cause long delays at airports in France this summer.
This comes as the formal rollout of the new border system for non-EU nationals was hit by delays and disruption of several hours in April.
In a press release, the company states it has requested that the French authorities “suspend the rollout of the EU’s passport control Entry/Exit System (EES) until September to ensure that passengers – many of whom are travelling on holiday with young families – are not needlessly forced to suffer long passport control queue delays at French airports during the peak summer season.”
The Irish company also went on to criticise an alleged lack of preparedness on the part of the French authorities and other European countries.
READ ALSO: Full rollout of new EU border checks hit by delays and disruption
“Despite knowing for over three years that EES would become fully operational from 10 April 2026, the French authorities have failed to ensure adequate staffing, system readiness or kiosks are in place,” the statement says.
“As a result, passengers are suffering long passport control queues and, in some cases, missing their flights. Long queue times for passengers are already in excess of 1-2 hours at Beauvais, Marseille, and Nantes airports, where a lack of staff and system outages continue to cause unnecessary disruption to our passengers.”
Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, however, indicated that the EES issue is not only limited to France: “Governments across Europe are attempting to roll out a half-baked IT system in the middle of the busiest travel season of the year, and passengers are paying the price, being forced to endure hours long passport control queues and in some cases, missing flights.”
“The solution is simple and already provided for under EU law,” he added. “Governents should suspend EES until September when the peak summer travel season has subsided, just as Greece has done. This would allow passengers – many of whom are travelling with young families – a smoother airport experience for their summer holidays.”
However, Member States may technically already have the green light to partially suspend EES to avoid travel chaos at ports and airports during peak season. This does not mean they will necessarily exercise that right, however.
In January, European Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert said that Member States, if needed, “can always prolong this gradual rollout period until September.”
Lammert later clarified this didn’t mean there had been an official extension to the EES rollout, but did confirm that EES countries did have some flexibility to suspend the checks once the progressive deployment of EES finished in April.
This was essentially a measure to avoid any queues during the peak summer season. “This means that by April 10th 2026 all Member States will need to fully deploy the EES across all their border crossing points and register all third country nationals crossing their borders,” Lammert said.
“After the completion of the roll-out, Member States will still be able to partially suspend EES operations where necessary during a period of an additional 90 days with a possible 60-day extension to cover the summer peak.”
“This will give Member States the necessary tools to manage potential extended queues,” he added.
READ ALSO: EU says countries can halt EES checks over summer to avoid travel chaos
What is EES?
The new Entry/Exit System (EES) collects digital and personal records of third-country nationals travelling to the Schengen area and replaces the manual stamping of passports.
Travellers from non-EU countries, including the UK, have to register fingerprints and facial images the first time they cross an external Schengen border to enter any of the 29 Schengen countries (25 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein).
It was first launched on October 12th 2025 and the system has been introduced gradually, but technological issues have hindered implementation, however.
As The Local previously reported, EES has been delayed for passengers arriving in France by Eurostar, Eurotunnel and ferry due to a technology issue.
