---
title: "Biometric Collapse in Europe: Airlines Demand Halt to EES Due to 5-Hour Queues"
description: "The European aviation sector is demanding a halt to the implementation of the biometric EES system. 🛑 Due to glitches and queues of up to 5 hours in airports, carriers risk losing 140 million euros. 📉"
date: 2026-07-02T16:08:35.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/biometric-collapse-in-europe-airlines-demand-halt-to-ees
tags: []
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Biometric Collapse in Europe: Airlines Demand Halt to EES Due to 5-Hour Queues

![Huge queue of passengers in a European airport waiting for EES biometric control](https://xab.info/media/2026/07/02/aviapervezoshchiki-trebuyut-ostanovit-ees-v-europe/aviapervezoshchiki-trebuyut-ostanovit-ees-v-europe-1.webp)

The European aviation sector is facing an unprecedented crisis at the borders of the Schengen Area. A group of leading airlines and industry associations has officially appealed to the European Commission to immediately suspend the implementation of the automated Entry/Exit System (EES). The cause of this emergency request is critical failures in biometric terminals, which have led to an operational collapse in the continent's largest airports.

### The Security Paradox: How Modernization Stalled Flows

The introduction of the EES was originally intended as a step towards improving the efficiency of managing the EU's external borders. According to the regulation, the system is supposed to replace the manual stamping of passports for third-country nationals with digital data recording. However, in practice, the launch of the technology coincided with the peak of the summer tourist season, resulting in chaos.

The implementation of new standards requires travelers who are not EU citizens to undergo a complex initial registration procedure. The process includes:

    - Scanning of four fingerprints from the right hand;

    - High-precision digital recording of facial biometric parameters;

    - Automatic verification of compliance with visa-free stay rules (90 days out of 180).

Under conditions of high passenger density, these actions, which were supposed to speed up control, have effectively paralyzed the work of border terminals. In the largest transit hubs of the EU, waiting times in queues have reached five hours.

### Economic Losses and Technical Failure

Representatives of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Airlines for Europe (A4E) association emphasize that the industry is not against strengthening security, but the current format of implementation is considered destructive. According to analysts, if the verification algorithms are not corrected in the near future, the financial losses of carriers by the end of the third quarter of 2026 could exceed 140 million euros.

These losses consist of compensation to passengers for missed connections, flight delays, and the excess fuel consumption of aircraft forced to wait for takeoff or landing clearance.

The situation is exacerbated by technical problems. Periodic failures in the central database of the EU's IT agency (eu-LISA) lead to a complete stoppage of registration lines. According to monitoring data, the technical readiness of terminals is only about 68% of the target plan.

### Statistics of Failure: Comparison of Indicators

The gap between regulators' expectations and reality at border crossings became evident when comparing indicators before and after the implementation of the system:

    - **Time to check one passenger:** previously took 45–90 seconds, now stretches to 3.5–5 minutes during initial registration.

    - **Queues:** maximum waiting time has increased from 45 minutes during peak hours to 5 hours in first-category airports.

Official representatives of the border authorities of Germany and France admit the presence of critical load on personnel. The authorities explain the situation by the need to form an initial database of biometric data, asserting that the delays are of an adaptive nature. Upon subsequent border crossings, the procedure should take no more than 15–20 seconds.

However, the aviation business considers it unacceptable to conduct large-scale testing of new infrastructure under peak summer loads. Carriers insist on freezing the project until the software is fully optimized and the throughput of terminals is expanded to avoid a repeat of the collapse scenario.