Ryanair Is Warning U.S. Travelers About 3-Hour Fingerprinting Delays And Missed Connections At 7 European Airports This Fall
As of September 7, the European Union’s grace interval for its new, controversial Entry/Exit System is formally over.
Under the principles, border authorities not have the identical freedom to droop biometric assortment just because queues are getting out of hand, although enforcement should fluctuate considerably whereas sure airports iron out their remaining technical issues.
For these unfamiliar with the measure, Europe now requires most non-European guests—and this contains U.S. passport holders touring as vacationers—to register their passport particulars, fingerprints, and a facial picture when first coming into the Schengen Area.
If you haven’t been throughout the pond since EES got here into drive, you will not be absolutely conscious of the foremost teething issues throughout its rollout.
From 122 passengers being left behind by a single flight at Milan Linate earlier this yr to six-to-seven-hour border queues reported in Lisbon in the course of the early rollout, the introduction of biometric checks has been something however easy.
Now, because of Ryanair, we all know which EU hubs the provider thought-about essentially the most overwhelmed this summer season—and which of them you might need to strategy with slightly further warning as we head into fall:
Top 7 Airports Ryanair Flagged For EES Delays This Summer
Tenerife South Airport, Spain
Tenerife South Airport (TFS) is the principle worldwide gateway serving the Canary Island of Tenerife.
Tenerife is a hugely popular off-season destination for Europeans, because of its reasonable fall climate, mixture of golden and volcanic seashores, and quite a few resort strips.
Summer was nothing in need of hectic, and given the very fact the Canaries are just about a year-round vacation spot, the border hiccups aren’t essentially going to fade as soon as September rolls round.
Ryanair listed TFS among the many seven European airports experiencing ‘major disruptions’ in the course of the summer season, notably for passengers touring to or from locations exterior the Schengen Area.
Separate experiences have described passport-control waits exceeding 90 minutes throughout notably tough durations, whereas Tenerife’s lodge affiliation, Ashotel, has repeatedly complained about inadequate border staffing and defective biometric gear.
It’s price saying that not each arrival has been a horror present, with some vacationers reporting that they sailed by means of passport management in underneath half an hour.
That’s the true downside right here: the wait occasions will be wildly unpredictable.
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
If you’re flying on to Mallorca from exterior the Schengen Area this fall, you may need to enable for some further buffer time to clear passport management, as EES queues right here have been… ahem, appreciable.
Some of the worst reported waits have reached three hours, in accordance with native media, although that’s a reported peak, not a typical wait or an official airport common.
Other vacationers have reported far smoother experiences, with some finishing the EES course of in round 20 minutes.
This solely goes to point out how unpredictable Europe’s new border controls will be.
Mallorca stays a busy low season vacation spot, as it’s a sun-drenched Mediterranean island with a protracted heat season, and as late as October, there’s nonetheless a excessive frequency of non-Schengen flights into the island, notably from the United Kingdom.
Bottlenecks can’t be dominated out, particularly in the event you’re arriving directly from Newark, so put together accordingly.
Alicante, Spain
Third time’s the allure for Spain.
Alicante doesn’t at the moment host nonstop transatlantic flights from the U.S., however you may completely bear EES right here in the event you arrive on a non-Schengen service, notably from Britain or Ireland.
In different phrases, Americans connecting by means of London, Manchester, Dublin, or one other airport exterior Schengen will usually full their EES entry formalities after touchdown in Alicante.
As the overwhelming majority of non-Schengen site visitors right here comes from the United Kingdom, the heaviest strain tends to coincide with waves of British arrivals and departures.
Peak waits of 1 to 2 hours have been reported, and police union SUP beforehand warned that notably tough days might see passport-control queues swell to round 500 folks.
The principal culprits? The standard story: inadequate border-police staffing, malfunctioning EES kiosks, and huge batches of flights arriving inside a really brief window.
At this level, it’s unclear whether or not Alicante’s EES troubles will likely be absolutely resolved this fall.
Similarly to each Tenerife and Palma, it enjoys an extended season because of common October highs hovering round 77°F and low season getaway offers that proceed drawing a whole lot of 1000’s of holiday makers.
Check Travel Rules Before Flying To Europe This Fall
Before you head to Europe this season, be sure to have your documentation as a way to keep away from any further border scrutiny.
Americans can usually keep for under 90 days inside any rolling 180-day interval throughout your complete Schengen Area, and that features international locations like Spain, France, Italy, and 26 others.
However, Schengen international locations can temporarily reintroduce internal checks, and police might sometimes be ready on the arrival corridor or onboard worldwide trains to verify IDs, so preserve your passport useful.
Unsure what to deliver alongside for the journey? Use the Entry Requirement Checker to double-check what applies to you.
Málaga, Spain
We most likely sound like a damaged document at this level, however the fourth European airport to make Ryanair’s naughty record is, as soon as once more, Spanish.
We don’t know what it’s with Spain and suboptimal border administration this summer season, in the event you catch our drift, however right here we’re.
For these touching down in Málaga from exterior the Schengen Area, you may must train slightly endurance earlier than making a beeline straight for the closest seashore, as EES ready occasions will be substantial.
Ryanair cited strains exceeding an hour, passengers lacking departures, and recurring system malfunctions in the course of the earlier phases of the summer season.
Setting our favourite low-cost provider we like to hate apart, vacationers have continued reporting wildly inconsistent expertises: some breeze by means of in minutes, whereas others get correctly caught out by slow-moving queues.
Want a concrete instance of absolutely the shambles this hub has seen? A British household of 4 missed its flight house from Málaga regardless of arriving three hours early, following delays at bag drop, safety, and passport management.
We guess it’s not all $7 tapas and chilling on the seashore at Spain’s principal gateway to the toasty Costa del Sol as of late, in any case.
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Milan, Italy
More particularly, Bergamo Airport.
If you’re flying low-cost into Milan from whichever European hub, chances are high you’ll be touchdown at Milan Bergamo Airport (BGY).
Located round 31 miles northeast of central Milan, beside the neighboring metropolis of Bergamo—a lesser-explored Italian gem we’ve lined previously—that is considered one of Ryanair’s busiest Italian bases.
When the airline says there’s been critical EES disruption right here, we’ll take its phrase for it.
There is at the moment no dependable, airport-wide waiting-time common for Bergamo, so throwing round a precise two or three-hour determine can be little greater than guesswork.
What we do know is that Ryanair included it among the many airports experiencing main disruption and warned that inadequate kiosks, staffing, and system readiness had been slowing passport management.
The wider Milan area has had EES bother of its personal, too.
Earlier this yr, a whopping 122 passengers missed a single flight to Manchester at Milan Linate Airport (LIN), regardless of a few of them arriving practically three hours earlier than departure.
In different phrases, for these eager on bearing witness to the world-famous Gothic Duomo and experiencing Italy’s Capital of Fashion, you might need to keep away from constructing an itinerary round a decent non-Schengen connection.
Kraków, Poland
Kraków has been on a steadfast rise as a vacation spot lately, after spending far too lengthy being criminally missed by most Europe-bound vacationers.
It’s not the nation’s capital—that title belongs to the sprawling, rebuilt-and-reinvented metropolis of Warsaw—however it’s undoubtedly Poland’s cultural coronary heart.
Its Rynek Główny is considered one of Europe’s largest and best-preserved medieval city squares, whereas Wawel Castle, perched on a limestone hill overlooking the fast-flowing Vistula River, homes the extremely ornate Wawel Cathedral, the place Polish kings had been as soon as topped and buried.
Kraków can also be one of many principal gateways for guests touring to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, so you may most likely perceive why it has turn out to be Poland’s most sought-after metropolis break.
It’s additionally the one airport in Central Europe featured on Ryanair’s seven-airport record.
The disruption right here is much less persistently documented than at a number of the Spanish hubs, however Kraków Airport (KRK) is way from resistant to EES setbacks.
Traveler experiences have ranged from roughly 40-minute waits at departure passport management to 1 latest account of a three-hour arrivals queue.
These are particular person experiences, not official airport averages, however they illustrate simply how dramatically ready occasions can change in accordance with staffing, kiosk availability, and the variety of non-Schengen flights touchdown directly.
Paris, France
More particularly, Beauvais.
For these acquainted with the Beauvais recreation, you realize that is something however a correct Paris airport.
It lies roughly 50 miles north of the French capital, and as we’ve lined beforehand, you’d be smart to depart central Paris a number of hours earlier than your flight.
The official airport shuttle alone takes round 90 minutes in regular circumstances and might simply get caught in site visitors.
We guess it doesn’t assist that, on high of being a compact, two-terminal regional airport dealing with thousands and thousands of low-cost passengers yearly, it now has the added faff of biometric border processing.
Beauvais hosts quite a few non-Schengen routes, notably to and from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Albania, and different locations exterior Europe’s passport-free journey zone, so the amount of passengers requiring EES checks will be appreciable.
Think slow-moving passport-control strains, malfunctioning kiosks, and huge teams of first-time EES customers trying to register concurrently.
Ryanair particularly notes that Beauvais Airport (BVA) has skilled sluggish processing and extreme passport-control queues.
The airline hasn’t printed a dependable airport-wide common, nevertheless, so take any dramatic multi-hour determine circulating on-line as a worst-case passenger account quite than a normal wait.
What Has Ryanair Said?
These delays primarily have an effect on non-European short-stay guests, who should register their passport particulars, fingerprints, and a facial picture when first coming into the EES database.
On later crossings, their id and present document are usually verified quite than your complete enrollment being accomplished from scratch.
Ryanair says sluggish processing has induced some passengers to overlook their flights altogether, whereas others have reached the gate solely after boarding had closed.
The provider initially requested for the system to be suspended on the most uncovered airports over summer season, earlier than calling for an emergency extension of the short-term flexibility that allowed border authorities to pause sure checks each time terminals grew to become dangerously congested.
The European Commission didn’t grant a blanket shutdown, and as of September 7, 2026, that distinctive flexibility has formally expired.
How To Avoid EES Delays
On paper, EES biometric processing can not be paused merely to get an unpleasant queue transferring, although how strictly that will likely be utilized from airport to airport stays to be seen whereas technical issues persist.
The excellent news is that on an easy Schengen trip, you’ll usually encounter EES solely twice: as soon as when coming into the Schengen Area and as soon as when leaving it.
You gained’t must register once more each time you cross from Spain into France or France into Italy, for instance. If you fly from Newark to Madrid after which proceed to Tenerife, your entry verify occurs in Madrid, and the home connection to Tenerife includes no additional EES border.
Similarly, in the event you fly from Málaga to Madrid earlier than persevering with to the U.S., your exit is registered in Madrid. Leave Schengen halfway by means of your journey and re-enter, nevertheless, and that’s one other pair of EES crossings.
That additionally provides you a reasonably simple approach of avoiding biometric queues on the 7 airports above: enter Schengen by means of a bigger connecting hub, then proceed on an inside flight or practice.
You might attain Tenerife, Mallorca, Alicante, or Málaga by means of Madrid, or journey to Kraków by means of Warsaw or Frankfurt, and even take the practice into Milan after coming into by means of Zürich.
As for Beauvais, simply keep away from it altogether and use Charles de Gaulle, Orly, or the Eurostar if coming in from London.
This doesn’t make EES disappear, as you’ll nonetheless full it at your first entry and ultimate exit factors, but it surely shifts the method to a bigger hub which will have extra border employees and kiosks.
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