NEWS FLASH
Airports Council International Europe (ACI), the only worldwide professional association of airport operators representing over 600 airports on the continent, has called upon the European Commission and Schengen Member States to urgently address the mounting operational issues related to the ongoing implementation of the Schengen Entry‑Exit System (EES), which started on October 12. “The progressive scaling‑up of the registration and capture of biometric data from third country nationals entering the Schengen area has resulted in border control processing times at airports increasing by up to 70%, with waiting times of up to three hours at peak traffic periods. This is severely impacting the passenger experience – with airports in France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and Spain especially impacted”, ACI Europe said. This is despite the current threshold for registering third country nationals set at only 10%. It is due to increase to 35% as of January 9, 2026.
Regular outages and ongoing technical and staffing shortcomings in the EES are undermining the predictability, resilience and efficiency of border operations. Persistent configuration issues, limited availability of self-service kiosks and ABC gates, the absence of a functional pre-registration app and chronic border guard shortages at airports continue to constrain effective implementation.