Passengers on a Friday evening flight from London City to Amsterdam experienced significant delays and confusion upon arrival, highlighting ongoing problems with the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) intended to streamline border controls for non-EU travellers. The KLM flight, scheduled to land at 8:15 p.m. local time but delayed by an hour due to a lightning storm, arrived at approximately 10 p.m. Once disembarked, British passport holders encountered closed self-service kiosks and limited staffed passport counters, leading to long queues, frustration, and heightened tensions at Amsterdam’s border control.

The EES, launched in October 2025 and designed to replace passport stamping with biometric registration for non-EU nationals entering and exiting the Schengen area, has faced criticism for its problematic rollout. While European officials have repeatedly maintained that the system functions smoothly at most border points, travellers and border agents report repeated registration requests and slow processing times, particularly affecting British visitors after Brexit.

The system’s primary aim is to collect biometric data—including fingerprints and facial images—and link this information to passport data in a central repository managed by eu-LISA, an EU agency based in Tallinn, Estonia. This process creates a traveler file, retained for three years, that should enable automated and expedited immigration clearance on subsequent visits. In theory, a quick biometric scan at kiosks should alert border officials only if there are issues such as overstays or criminal records.

However, the practical implementation has been hindered by technical failures and inconsistent operation across the 29 Schengen countries. Responsibility for deploying and managing EES technology is decentralized, involving multiple providers and local partners. For example, Thales supplies systems for France and Spain, while Secunet oversees Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, working with local firms in other member states. Variations in technology extend to individual locations within countries, such as the Channel Tunnel relying on different French technology.

Sources familiar with the rollout describe critical failures in the “plumbing” of the system, meaning the integrated technological framework does not function end-to-end. This has resulted in incomplete or incorrect biometric data uploads to the central portal and non-accessible traveller files for border officials at some points, forcing travellers to undergo repeated biometric registrations. Such inefficiencies strain airport and port resources, which were not configured for the increased administrative load, even outside peak travel periods.

The complications have led to warnings for British families anticipating summer travel delays of up to six hours at EU borders. Despite longstanding plans for a digitalized border system dating back to 2008 and legal frameworks established in 2016-2017, the EES’s multi-year implementation has been repeatedly postponed—from an initial 2020 launch to subsequent delays linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns over system readiness ahead of events such as the 2024 Paris Olympics.

While EU officials insist that EES operates effectively at most crossings, the experiences of travellers and border staff underline significant operational challenges that continue to fuel uncertainty and frustration. With the system scheduled to be fully operational in all Schengen countries by April 2026, resolving these technological and administrative shortcomings remains a critical priority for ensuring smoother border processing for non-EU visitors.