Call to suspend new EU border system in peak holiday period as planes leave half full

Airlines and airports say passengers are struggling in queues of up to five hours for biometric checks.

BRUSSELS: Airlines and airports have called for the new EU biometric border check system to be suspended during the peak summer holiday period, warning that some flights are leaving half empty whilst passengers endure queues of up to five hours.

In a joint letter to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, major industry groups requested the authority to temporarily halt the checks over fears that the situation will deteriorate severely during July and August, when European airports are expected to handle approximately 40 million more passengers than the previous two months.

The aviation industry groups, including ACI Europe, Airlines for Europe, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), stated that border authorities, airports, and airlines are currently under unsustainable pressure.

Passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough. The industry bodies warned that airlines are facing half-empty planes at gate closing times, forcing some aircraft to delay takeoff whilst others are forced to leave passengers behind, which is severely undermining Europe’s reputation and tourism connectivity.

The biometric system, which has been introduced gradually since last October, requires non-EU citizens to register fingerprints and a photograph at their destination airport. However, the rollout has faced significant operational issues and unreliable automated kiosks, prompting unilateral actions across Europe. Greece has already suspended biometric checks for British travellers until September, French police temporarily suspended the checks at the port of Dover in May, and the head of Rome’s airports recently threatened to bypass the system to avoid a summer disaster.

The industry groups have urged the European Commission to allow airports to completely suspend checks whenever passenger volumes exceed operational capacity, arguing that this flexibility must remain available into the autumn under exceptional circumstances until adequate staffing and technical reliability are achieved.