British passengers heading home through European airports are being told to get there three hours before departure, after Wizz Air chief Yvonne Moynihan said delays linked to the EU entry-exit system have left some travellers waiting far longer than expected at border control.
The warning matters now because the system, which replaces passport stamps with digital registration, has moved from a gradual rollout that began in October 2025 to full operation last month. Moynihan said the usual advice would be two hours before a flight, but “in these circumstances, we are advising three hours” because passengers are facing an extra passport check and longer waits than planned.
On Saturday, Moynihan said the impact was not the same everywhere. She said there had been long queues at usual hotspots such as Spain, Portugal and France, but added that on her own half-term trip to Mallorca there were no queues, extra staff were on hand and there was a significant amount of EES kiosks. She also told passengers to carry a portable charger or water in case they encounter delays after landing, and suggested leaving several hours between connecting flights.
The pressure on airports is showing up in the numbers. ACI Europe said the situation is deteriorating, and in a survey of 45 airports across 20 EU states on 26 May it found queues of up to 3.5 hours at peak traffic times. Airports that had not previously reported excessive waiting were now doing so, it said, despite the extensive use of partial suspension of EES.
That picture sits awkwardly beside the European Commission’s argument that registering information usually takes only about a minute. The system’s biometric checks for non-EU citizens are meant to speed up crossing points over time, but the current rollout has instead exposed how unevenly airports are handling the workload, and how quickly a short screening can turn into a long hold-up when passenger volumes surge.
Last week, French police temporarily suspended the checks at the port of Dover as thousands of holidaymakers faced delays in hot weather, and a spokesperson for the port described the situation as challenging. Police Aux Frontières invoked article 9 of the EES regulations to relax checks temporarily, a sign that some border posts are already relying on stopgap measures to keep traffic moving. For travellers, the practical advice is immediate: allow more time than usual, expect queues to vary sharply by airport, and do not assume the return journey will move as smoothly as the one out.
