Airlines and Airports Demand EES Rethink as Queues Persist

Europe's airports and airlines associations have demanded a rethink of the EU's Entry/Exit System, one year after the digital border scheme came into force, saying delays at Schengen external crossings have become unacceptable. The Local Italy reported on Tuesday that the industry bodies want EU authorities to act on congestion that has produced waits of up to five hours in some cases.

The EES replaces passport stamping with biometric registration for non-EU travellers entering and leaving the Schengen area. Its critics in the aviation sector argue that the infrastructure at some external border points has not kept pace with the requirement to fingerprint and photograph every third-country traveller on first entry.

For a region that sits on the Schengen external border, the complaint is not abstract. Friuli-Venezia Giulia shares land crossings with Slovenia and, beyond it, the Balkan corridor; its airports and road checkpoints are among the places where the system is applied in practice. The industry's demand is for EU-level action — additional staffing, technology or phased implementation — rather than for any change to the underlying policy.

The timing of the intervention is notable. A year into operation, the scheme has moved past its introduction phase, which means the delays can no longer be attributed to unfamiliarity or initial teething problems. The airports and airlines associations are effectively arguing that the system as designed is producing the queues, and that the fix has to come from Brussels rather than from individual carriers or terminal operators.

The industry's language — "unacceptable" — is directed at EU authorities, not at national governments, according to The Local Italy's account. That framing matters for Italy: border management at Schengen external crossings is a shared competence, and the operational burden falls on national police and airport operators while the rules are set centrally. Neither the Italian government nor any Italian authority is named in the report as having responded.

The wire gives no figures for delays at specific Italian crossings, and no named Italian airport or border post is cited. What the report does establish is the scale of the problem as the aviation sector sees it — up to five hours at some external border points — and the fact that the sector is now asking for the rules to be revisited rather than simply endured. Further detail on how any rethink would be structured, or on when EU authorities might respond, is not in today's coverage.