Entry/Exit System

This

year, I believe the EU's entry-exit system also became fully operational and it applies to 25 EU Schengen member states as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

What it means is that it requires travelers to register their biometric details, for example fingerprints or their photo, and it replaces the previous system where travelers had their passports manually stamped.

Could you share some insight on these challenges and how Eurocontrol works to support the aviation sector here?

For airports, even a small challenge in passenger processing can have a significant impact during the peak periods.

And it was identified as a risk in the network operational plan.

And while Eurocontrol is not responsible for implementing the entry-exit system itself, the network manager supported the stakeholders and airports by providing information and some predictions that could help the local actors anticipate and mitigate potential operational impacts.

The main concerns that we had were related to impacts that would be generated for the network by longer processing times, longer queues during peak periods, connecting passengers and their issues, and the knock-on effects that these delays can have on airport operations and flight punctuality.

Having said all that, there are countries that are having problems.

And nine countries, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Malta, the Netherlands and Switzerland and Belgium are delaying the EES, the entry exit system indefinitely right now.

Yeah, I think the problem probably is all these countries do not have like a unified computer system.

Right.

For a few more years.

So that's what we've talked about.

So that was the EES.

And now the other thing that we've talked about a lot on the podcast are- what I call the ETIAS.

The scheme has faced fierce criticism from Ryanair and others.

The European Union describes the entry-exit system as an automated IT system designed to register non-EU nationals travelling on short stays each time they cross the external borders of the participating European countries.

Following years of postponements, the system was rolled out from October 2025 with full implementation originally anticipated by the following April this year.

However, faced with the prospect of significant border queues due to software failures, officials granted countries a 150-day grace period during which they could drop the checks to avoid travel chaos.

Why are nine Schengen countries suddenly hitting the brakes on their entry exit system deployments in Europe?

Ah, the EES delays.

Yeah, the report notes they repertain informal flexibility over their EES biometric collections specifically because of persistent implementation problems.

Is the core matching math actually failing out in the wild?

What's fascinating here is the severe operational delta between algorithmic accuracy and real-world service delivery.

system.

And that's what it's called for Europe right now, EES, electronic entry system.

Those are two different things entirely.

A visa is where you're going to actually have to make an application.

And I've actually read it up.

Uh, particularly Malpensa have experienced severe passenger bottlenecks due to a full rollout of the European Union's Entry/Exit System, or known as the EES.

So basically, what this means is that non-EU passengers from countries such as Australia, UK, US, Canada, they must undergo initial biometric registration at self-service kiosk, capturing four fingerprints and a facial image, and that takes about five minutes per passenger.

And this has ex- exponentially slowed down the throughput compared to traditional visual passport checks where somebody just stamps your passport, in you go.

What, again? Guys, you don't realise this has been going on For so long.

It's a bit like EES took so long to come in and then this was always going to be the natural progression that we'd move on to.

By the way, ETS, the easiest way to think about it is an E visa.

You know how when you go to the US...

Oh, this is that? This is the EU's

version.

Will it replace? No, it's in addition to EES.

Correct.