Ryanair has today warned that the EU’s passport control Entry/Exit System (EES) is not ready for the end-of-school-term travel period and will cause ”queue chaos” as millions of families prepare to travel across Europe for their well-deserved summer holidays.

With peak summer travel now approaching, Ryanair said it is again calling on European Governments to suspend the rollout of EES until September, when the busiest travel period has passed, to prevent passengers – many travelling with young families from being forced to suffer long and avoidable passport control queues.

To help customers prepare for potential airport disruption and prevent them from missing their flights, Ryanair said it wants to advise passengers of the increased queues at passport control when travelling to non-Schengen destinations, and to arrive earlier at the airport.

Checks may require scanning passports, providing fingerprints and having a facial image taken, ”for which the current infrastructure is NOT ready to manage the high passenger volumes expected during peak season, due to insufficient staff, kiosks and system readiness,” Ryanair said.

It warned that ”airports such as Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Krakow and Paris Beauvais are experiencing major disruptions, with further congestion expected as we enter the busiest weeks of summer.”

Ryanair has reiterated its concerns to the Governments of the most exposed countries, urging them to ”take action, protect consumers during a crucial period and postpone EES until September, as permitted under EU law. However, despite the clear impact on passengers and families this summer, there has been zero response to fix this major challenge.”

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