Schengen Entry/Exit System queues reach up to five hours, industry calls for reforms
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Airlines and airport groups say passenger waiting times at the Schengen Entry/Exit System regularly exceed two hours and can reach five hours during peak periods, and they have presented a six‑point plan to address structural shortcomings.
Queue lengths
Passenger waiting times at the Schengen Entry/Exit System are reported to routinely exceed two hours and to reach up to five hours in extreme cases during peak traffic, according to ACI EUROPE and Airlines for Europe.
Identified problems
The industry bodies attribute the delays to inadequate border‑control staffing, instability of the IT systems that support the Entry/Exit System, limited deployment of self‑service kiosks and automated border‑control gates, and shortcomings in the Travel to Europe pre‑registration app.
Proposed plan
ACI EUROPE and Airlines for Europe have outlined a six‑point plan that includes removing duplicate checks, optimising biometric verification, preventing duplicate passenger profiles, upgrading the pre‑registration app and web portal, expanding harmonised automated border control for third‑country nationals, and creating a permanent mechanism to temporarily suspend biometric registration when queues become excessive.
The organisations have called on the European Commission and Schengen Member States to adopt these measures promptly in cooperation with airports and airlines.