The Call for Flexibility
Abta, representing British travel agents and tour operators, has asked the European Commission to extend contingency measures that allow temporary suspension of the entry/exit system past the current September 2026 deadline. The request came at the association's annual convention in Madeira this week, one year after the EU began rolling out biometric border controls across the Schengen Area.
The system requires travellers to provide fingerprints and facial images on their first entry. It launched in phases starting October 2025, and countries were given the option to pause requirements during peak periods to prevent operational collapse at borders.
Luke Petherbridge, Abta's director of public affairs, told delegates that the commission should not mandate full implementation until the system proves stable. "You cannot roll this out fully until it is stable and efficient, because we don't want to see people being deterred," he said.
What Travellers Experienced
The picture emerging from actual travel is mixed. Abta surveyed more than 2,000 people about their recent European trips. Half of those who went through the biometric process reported queues under 30 minutes. Eighty-seven per cent spent less than an hour waiting, and eight in ten said the system caused no knock-on problems for their travel plans.
Yet six per cent said the experience made them much less likely to visit the EU in future. That figure may sound small, but applied across the millions who travel between Britain and Europe each year, it represents a meaningful number of deterred trips.
Summer 2026 did see pressure points. Some airports reported queues stretching to several hours, causing missed flights and strained operations. Portuguese airports including Lisbon, Faro and Porto were among those reported to have used suspension powers during busy periods, though official confirmation of which airports paused checks and when remains patchy.
The Stability Question
Abta's position is not that the system has failed outright, but that it remains too fragile to lock in as mandatory. Petherbridge noted in a statement that improvements are still needed, particularly better identification of travellers already registered and enhancements to the pre-arrival app that would allow some checks before people reach the border.
"Until the system is operating effectively, Abta believes the ability to step down checks must be retained," he said. If new legislation is required to extend the flexibility, the commission should act quickly to provide certainty for both industry and travellers.
Airports Council International echoed similar concerns earlier in the year, reporting wait times that routinely exceeded two hours and occasionally reached five hours. The council called for immediate operational and regulatory adjustments. Ryanair separately asked for the flexibility rule to run into early 2027.
The Enforcement Gap
At least nine countries reportedly continued to delay full implementation past the early September deadline, including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland. The delays were permitted to maintain what officials called "border fluidity".
That pattern suggests the technical and logistical challenges are broader than any single airport or country. Uku Särekanno, deputy executive director of Frontex, the EU border agency, said earlier in 2026 that there was no intention to further ease the rules after summer. Yet the on-the-ground reality has not matched that statement.
Petherbridge acknowledged the commission's pragmatism in allowing contingency measures to continue in some areas. The question now is whether that pragmatism will be formalised into 2027, or whether countries will be expected to comply fully even as problems persist.
What Happens Next
The entry/exit system is part of a broader EU effort to modernise border management and improve security. The long-term vision includes linking biometric data across entry points and integrating with other travel authorisation schemes. But the gap between vision and execution remains wide.
For now, travellers heading to Europe face an uneven experience. Some borders process them quickly; others create bottlenecks that ripple through flight schedules and onward connections. The system works well enough often enough that most people get through without drama. But "often enough" is not the standard for infrastructure meant to handle hundreds of millions of crossings a year.
Whether the commission will extend formal flexibility into next year is unclear. What is clear is that the industry, and a portion of the travelling public, does not yet trust the system to run smoothly without an escape valve.
