Frontex: EES border queues could last one to two years

Border queues caused by the EU’s Entry/Exit System are not a summer blip. The EU’s own border agency, Frontex, now expects it will take one to two years for EES to settle down, and that the hardest part of the entire rollout is still happening right now. If you are planning a trip to Europe in late 2026 or into 2027, this is what Frontex’s assessment means for your journey.

What the Frontex official actually said

Uku Särekanno, deputy executive director of Frontex, gave the clearest institutional assessment yet of how long EES disruption will last. Speaking in June 2026, he said that collecting fingerprints from non-EU travellers on their first Schengen crossing was “probably the most challenging part” of the rollout. His exact words on the timeline: “We expect the situation will stabilise in one or two years because the most challenging part is the first enrolment.”

That is a significant statement. It means that even in the optimistic scenario, EES queues are a feature of European travel into 2027. In the less optimistic scenario, they persist until 2028. The reason is straightforward: every non-EU traveller who has not crossed a Schengen border since 12 October 2025 still needs to go through first-time biometric enrolment. That pool of travellers is enormous, and it is only processed one person at a time at a kiosk or staffed desk.

Why September is not the end of the problem

Several EU member states have been using a temporary mechanism to suspend biometric checks at their busiest airports when queues spike. That flexibility window, set out in Article 7 of the EU’s EES rollout regulation, runs for 90 days from when EES became fully operational on 10 April 2026, with an automatic 60-day extension if too few files created during the rollout hold biometric data. Practically, it expires in early September 2026, on the same day for every country using EES.

Frontex has said there are no plans to extend it further. Särekanno said he hopes the immediate kinks will be ironed out by September. But “ironed out” does not mean queues disappear in September. It means the safety valve closes and biometric enrolment becomes mandatory at every crossing, with no more pause option. For airports that have been using the pause to manage summer peaks, October and November could be the real test.

The article on why Italy and Portugal are pausing EES biometric checks explains how the suspension mechanism works and what it means for your 90-day clock. The short version: your stay clock starts on arrival regardless of whether biometrics are collected on that day.

What the travel industry is warning

The World Travel and Tourism Council published research finding that up to 41 million visitor arrivals and $45.4 billion in visitor spending could be at risk if border delays of three hours or more become persistent. The research asked travellers directly: 39% of UK travellers said they would be much less likely to travel to the Schengen area with a three-hour delay at the border, along with 33% of US and Canadian travellers and 27% from Australia.

ABTA and Airlines UK, alongside counterparts in the US and Canada, wrote to every Schengen country and the European Commission in the spring, asking for adequate border staffing, wider e-gate use, contingency measures at busy times, and more take-up of the Travel to Europe pre-registration app. Where a country supports it, the app lets travellers send their passport data and a facial image ahead of arrival.

Does pre-registering actually help?

Where it is available, yes. The Travel to Europe app lets non-EU travellers with a biometric passport pre-register their passport data and a facial image up to 72 hours before they reach the border, and answer the entry questions in advance. It does not take fingerprints, and the EU says it does not replace border checks. Our guide to the Travel to Europe app covers who can use it and what to expect at the gate.

The practical limit is coverage. The official app page lists two countries so far: Sweden, where the app handles passport data, facial image and the entry questionnaire, and Portugal, where it handles the questionnaire only. Other countries using EES may add it later.

What this means if you are visiting Europe this autumn or next year

The practical takeaways are unchanged from earlier in the summer, but they now need to be applied over a longer planning horizon.

• First-time crossings still take longer. If you have not been to Schengen since October 2025, budget extra time at the border. At major airports, an extra hour is the minimum; two hours is safer. Our guide to EES queue times has the detail by airport.
• After enrolment, crossings are faster. EES keeps your individual file for three years and a day after your last exit. From your second Schengen trip onwards the system pulls your existing file and the crossing is quicker. The pain is a one-time cost.
• Check whether pre-registration covers your entry point. The Travel to Europe app is optional and, so far, only Sweden and Portugal support it.
• Check your Schengen days carefully. EES records every entry and exit. The Schengen 90/180-day rule applies exactly as before, and EES enforces it automatically.

How does this affect ETIAS?

ETIAS, the EU’s pre-travel authorisation system, is not in operation yet and has no official start date; press reporting points to 2027. It is separate from EES: you apply online before you travel and arrive at the border with authorisation already granted. The actual border process on the day is still an EES check, fingerprints and all.

The timing matters. If Frontex is right about a one-to-two-year stabilisation window, EES will still be in its difficult phase when ETIAS launches. Travellers arriving in ETIAS’s first months will need both an ETIAS authorisation and, if they are first-time visitors, biometric enrolment at the gate. For where ETIAS stands right now, see the ETIAS status page.

Applications are not open yet. Anyone selling ETIAS applications today is not legitimate. The official application route will be through the EU’s own platform when it goes live.