Severe technical failures and unprepared travelers have characterized a rocky launch of Europe’s digital border transformation this week, news having spread swiftly over social media of chaotic scenes at the early adopting airports.
A week after the official launch of the Entry/Exit System (EES) on October 12, Europe’s ambitious digital border transformation has been bedeviled by significant technical failures and overwhelming delays in its rollout.
At Brussels Airport, for example, queues of as long as 3 hours have been recorded for non-EU citizens wishing to travel. Complete failures of the EES technical processes being recorded at Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport, resulting in the necessary manual processing of passengers.
Technical Failures Force Manual Processing
The worst failures have occurred at Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport, one of the few airports which implemented full EES operations at the outset of the operation.
According to The Register, Jim Moore, an expert in employee relations, spent just under 90 minutes waiting in immigration queues on October 12 when “the self-service machines for EES applications, which are designed for biometric data collection from non-EU citizens before they reach the immigration in a quick because by-pass queue are not working, so it was entirely one to one with officials coping with new EES requirements and all the usual immigration checks.”
Moore tweeted a shot of the queues and posted a notice to his colleagues that queues were of a serious length. “The officials were having to do it themselves,” Moore told The Register. “That’s of course a standard multi-thread – single-thread problem.”
Hamilton Nash, arriving later from London via Amsterdam, also reported his experiences.
Just fought through the queues. No machines working. Should be an hour to 90 minutes.
“At the airport now, news has just come through that Australian and British passport holders will be allowed to use the EU channel for departures to ease the bottleneck at the airport.”
Stuart Linden Rhodes who was watching the chaos prior to boarding his flight to Leeds Bradford, noticed passengers arriving and departing mixing freely in the terminal.
On departure, Rhodes said: “Same departure procedure before glare at you then your passport a stamp – biometrics not caught on exit either, so they told me.”
Surveys show that 68% of arrivals on 12 October expected the normal passport control procedure, border agents reporting 340% greater processing times in top week’s launch.
Confusion in All Traveller Forums
Travel discussion platforms and social media made confused reports on the experiences gained during the first week of the opening of the new system.
FlyerTalk types pointed to differences in their experiences, one posting: “I suspect some of the larger airports may decide to process some passengers through EES initially. Though it is not difficult to see that AMS and FRA seem to have quite a number of kiosks, and even if they had 100 kiosks (and there are not) if only flights from the UK land, when only 2 flights arrive into the country, then almost all the passengers will have to have access to the kiosks in October.”
A different experience was related by Simon Calder, the travel editor of The Independent; as his Ryanair flight landed 25 minutes early before the midnight launch. “Even when waiting until after midnight it is impossible,” Calder found the machines still not working and went through passport control without entering the new system.
Fly4Free said it had gleaned information from “dozens of entries and arrivals not concerned with EU passport, at the airport of Prague, who reported passengers on social media and in the Press as having commented on long queues and the presence of manual registration instead, e.g., kiosks.”
A survey by Holiday-Extras has shown that 82% of correspondents were not clear what the effect of the new EES will have on their journeys, while 85% did not know that the new rules were in force. Almost one in three holidaymakers had changed or cancelled their travels because of anxieties about possible delays on the frontiers.
Limited Implementation Across Europe
In place of what was hoped for and expected, that there should be application everywhere, EES was adopted in its integrity only in the following places, accordingly, viz., those of Estonia, Luxembourg and their clients in this country.
Chiefly, Prague was the case, which received EES applied to all entries and departures on the 12th of October.
According to reporters with The Independent and Euronews, the method was as follows:
With Spain considerably more cautious, the introduction of the new system was proceeded with caution, through the success of a single flight coming in Madrid airport.
The case was with Germany, where in like fashion the new system was introduced at the Düsseldorf airport, and passengers arriving at Frankfurt and Munich-central were postponed.
Contrary to expectations of widespread deployment, only Estonia, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic implemented EES for all arrivals and departures on October 12, according to reporting by The Independent and Euronews.
Spain’s cautious approach involved testing the system with a single flight arriving at Madrid airport. Germany limited initial rollout to Düsseldorf airport, with Frankfurt and Munich to follow later.
Major hubs delayed implementation entirely. Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport will begin with a “small-scale launch” on November 3rd, and a gradual expansion from the beginning of December, according to the Dutch justice ministry.
Longer Delays Recorded at Brussels Airport
Brussels Airport has had the worst record of delays known of them all.
Travel And Tour World has reported that “since the introduction of the measure on October 12 last, those without meaning from around the world have been and stood in queues for three hours.”
The Airport at Brussels said that these troubles would be temporary, and that “assistance teams were being augmented at the kiosks and that the signing and other vertical means of advice were being improved.”
UK Border Points Implementation by Phases
The inconveniences by the UK in forbidding materials presence in stark comparison with France adopted the ultra-cautious course.
Persons travelling by coach by the Port of Dover have been subject since October 12 to EES checks but not all traffic as car stuff until November 1.
Working in only for goods and coach passengers perilously travelling on October 12 was the order at the tunnel but eventually to include the car passengers.
The company have erected no less than 224 biometric kiosks at Folkestone and Calais.
Yann Leriche, Eurotunnel CEO
“No chaos will arise. We have had viz. very many months to prepare for it.”
Eurostar issued orders that there were to be limited use of the measure itself and required from October 12 as only passengers travelling by coach and business and premier class were to be subject thereto, but other passengers did not then come on stream until January 2026.
Preparation Impediments and Processing Times
The commitment is for eight to twenty-three minutes having regard for preparation on the part of the applicant and confusion as to placement of documents and the biometric requirements was imposed for delays.
The inquiry divulges that it is necessary now for travellers to restore glasses, hats and scarves respectively and “that fingerprint cards are required to be clean and dry hands, for washing afterwards with alcohol residues causing failures.”
Miss Julia So Bue Said, Vice of the Advantage Travel Partnership, recommends that “travellers would do well to count on to enter the EU at least three or four hours to be safe on the occasion of the latter delays.”
There is the assurance of the travel experts that indeed four hours over where there are to be will directions for the minutiae of passing through border control should be the information.
The results of three years data for the term of the system are stored for the EES in respect of each traveller particulars for the term of three years, identifying at last automatic overstayers.
The European Commission has been duly given inside information as to the system which states that the particulars comprise particulars particularly biometric particulars, in particular fingerprints and facial imaging.
Then there has been no stamping of passports so as these checks are in the main manually done.
What Travellers Are To Expect Next
Travellers are to expect now months of inconsistency of practice in regard to the there being open to the actual check-in points into states of southern Europe as the measure is not to come into working until full implementation, being on the 10th April 2026.
There has been the rolling out of the measure so that there are at it moments of coming upon a range of experience pending even at the check-in points used.
For instance, travellers used to Prague, for instance, and countries of European Community included in it had noticed that there were checks forthwith of visa etc, and validations, etc, which was prompt and smooth, and that it was in a satisfactory system.
For other perhaps it was a little more irritating use of this system, for it was generally confusing.
Critical Need for Accurate Day Calculations
With European informatic EES being concern at the time fully (as regards all entries and exits) attended automatically information to be given to accuracy, so the correctness of the 90/180 days, which rule now has become needful to actually avoid the troubles.
The system will alert immediately if the length of stay exceeds 90 days in any period of 180 days, even by 1 day, with penalties that range from prohibition of entry and deportation to bans on immigration for periods of 5 years.
“Before the EES, the 90/180 rule was applied circumstantially. There were those who took advantage of stamp gaps and those who miscalculated the length of stay. The border officials were not equipped with the necessary means to be able to verify the information provided instantly. This is over.”
This rolling calculation of time is complicated for many travelers. For more details how the rule works and how do the calculation correctly, read: How Does the 90/180-Day Actually Rule Work?
Avoiding Penalties
To avoid where money is wasted and fines applicable, in terms of the length of stay in the Schengen, the Schengen calculator available at SchengenVisaInfo.com — which is accurate for checking the length of stay used and how much of the allowable length of stay is remaining, also if it is ok to enter the Schengen — can be of use.
The tool will enable avoiding, unintentionally, any overstays which now result in an automatic recognition of this under the EES system, with the relevant applicable penalties.
“Do not try and be clever about points of exit. Do not try and find a ‘friendlier’ border, as many did prior to EES. Our path back will be the quickest there is.”
EES Overstays Can Trigger Entry Bans
Due to the fact that the EES now quickly detects overstays and issues flags immediately for breaches, even just one day over the 90/180 limit can initiate a Schengen Information System alert. This indicates that the flag of one country is immediately visible to all 29 Schengen Zone Nations (via the Schengen Information System) and a ban for years can occur for the entire zone.
Many travelers are not even aware that they have a flag until denied entry at the border.
How to check if you have a SIS alert and your remedial options can be found in our guide: SIS Alerts & Schengen Entry Denials: What You Need to Know.
