Europe's aviation industry has issued an urgent warning to the European Commission, saying the bloc's newly implemented digital border screening system is causing severe disruption at airports and demanding immediate flexibility before the situation deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season.

In a joint open letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, three of the aviation sector's most powerful representative bodies — Airports Council International Europe, Airlines for Europe, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) — said the crisis had reached a "critical point". Since its full rollout in April, the Entry/Exit System (EES) has produced queues of up to five hours at peak times, and in some cases planes have departed with only half their passengers on board. "The current implementation of the EES is creating severe operational consequences, disrupting passengers and putting border authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure," the letter warned.

The EES, which began rolling out in October as a replacement for traditional passport stamping, records the biometric data of non-EU travellers entering the Schengen Area — a zone of passport-free movement covering the 27 EU member states plus Switzerland and Norway. The system captures names, passport details, fingerprints, and facial images, along with dates and places of entry and exit. While designed to tighten immigration controls and eventually speed up processing, it has been blamed for bottlenecks at several major entry points. Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport has been particularly affected and became a focal point of public attention last month when footage of a CNN journalist navigating hours-long queues there went viral. Athens has also seen repeated disruption since April, including an incident in which 20 Ryanair passengers attempted to rush a departure gate after being processed in a group clearance. Portugal has already deployed 350 additional border agents and will supplement the digital checks with fully manual processing when expected wait times exceed 40 minutes.

The European Commission has so far maintained a largely defensive position, with a spokesperson saying during a Wednesday press briefing that problems were confined to a limited number of airports where member states had failed to ensure sufficient operational capacity, and that long queues were often linked to pre-existing conditions rather than the EES itself. The Commission did not immediately respond to further requests for comment. Major hubs such as Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt have so far experienced only sporadic disruption, but the industry's concern is focused on July and August, when European airports are expected to handle 40 million more passengers than in the preceding two months.

The stakes extend well beyond traveller inconvenience. The World Travel and Tourism Council warned that prolonged delays could put up to 41 million tourist arrivals and $45.4 billion in visitor spending at risk. Industry groups say reports are already emerging of international travellers reconsidering trips to Europe because of border delays. The aviation bodies are calling for member states to be granted the immediate right to suspend the EES entirely whenever passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of their border facilities — at least until staffing levels are adequate and system stability is assured. "Europe cannot afford to compromise its competitiveness or the experience it offers millions of visitors," said WTTC President and CEO Gloria Guevara.