Ryanair has raised the alarm over potential chaos and major disruptions at several key airports due to the implementation of the new European Union Entry and Exit System (EES) passport control programme. The airline has named specific locations experiencing severe issues and has called on European governments to postpone the rollout of the system until September to protect families during the peak holiday season.
According to the airline, several major airports are already suffering from significant interruptions. Ryanair has specifically named Tenerife Sur, Palma, Alicante, Málaga, Milan Bergamo, Krakow, and Paris Beauvais as the worst-affected locations. The carrier expects congestion to worsen significantly as the industry enters the busiest weeks of the summer.
The low-cost operator stated that the current infrastructure is not prepared to handle the expected high volume of passengers due to a lack of staff, self-service terminals, and overall system readiness. Under the new rules, passengers travelling to non-Schengen destinations face biometric checks that require scanning passports, providing fingerprints, and having a facial image captured.
The Chief Operations Officer of Ryanair, Neal MacMahon, argued that passengers and their families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating extensive queues, missed flights, and unnecessary stress. The airline has reiterated its warnings to the governments of the most affected countries, including a direct appeal to the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, urging immediate action before traffic increases further. Passengers are being advised by the airline to arrive earlier at airports to prepare for the increased queues.
