The EU’s flagship Entry/Exit System (EES) has hit another snag: the European Commission now admits that full deployment will slip to September 2026—four years later than originally planned. Austrian Freedom Party MEP Petra Steger called the situation a “total failure” in a press statement on 3 February, warning that the partial roll-out already under way is causing hour-long queues at airports and land borders.
EES replaces passport stamps with biometric registration of every non-EU national entering or leaving Schengen. The data are meant to feed automatically into ETIAS and overstayer alerts, but several member states report software crashes when passenger volumes exceed test parameters. Vienna Airport confirmed that its five self-service kiosks were taken offline twice last week, forcing manual processing of long-haul arrivals.
Steger demanded that EU Home-Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner—himself an Austrian—produce a corrective action plan within 30 days. She also called on Austria’s Interior Ministry to seek compensation for additional staffing costs and to suspend carrier-liability fines until the system is stable. Business-travel groups share the frustration: multinational firms based in Austria have seen missed connections and duty-of-care incidents spike since the progressive launch began last October.
![Austrian MEP blasts further delay to EU Entry/Exit System roll-out]()
Amid this uncertainty, VisaHQ can help travellers and compliance teams stay ahead of the curve. Through its Austria-dedicated portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/), the firm offers real-time updates on EES roll-outs, ETIAS timelines and Schengen visa policies, and can arrange pre-travel documentation or last-minute courier services—minimising the risk of delays at the border.
Consultancies advise mobility teams to brief travelling employees to expect longer transit times at Schengen external borders—particularly at Vienna, Munich and Zurich—and to build wider connection buffers into itineraries. Employers should also monitor visa-overstay risk, as manual stamping remains legally valid even when EES kiosks are down, leading to potential discrepancies in travel histories.
The Commission argues that the progressive approach allows technical issues to be fixed without shutting the system down. A new software patch is scheduled for mid-March; if successful, Austria plans to re-activate automated gates at Vienna Airport in April. Until then, corporate travellers are urged to arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure.
EES replaces passport stamps with biometric registration of every non-EU national entering or leaving Schengen. The data are meant to feed automatically into ETIAS and overstayer alerts, but several member states report software crashes when passenger volumes exceed test parameters. Vienna Airport confirmed that its five self-service kiosks were taken offline twice last week, forcing manual processing of long-haul arrivals.
Steger demanded that EU Home-Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner—himself an Austrian—produce a corrective action plan within 30 days. She also called on Austria’s Interior Ministry to seek compensation for additional staffing costs and to suspend carrier-liability fines until the system is stable. Business-travel groups share the frustration: multinational firms based in Austria have seen missed connections and duty-of-care incidents spike since the progressive launch began last October.
Amid this uncertainty, VisaHQ can help travellers and compliance teams stay ahead of the curve. Through its Austria-dedicated portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/), the firm offers real-time updates on EES roll-outs, ETIAS timelines and Schengen visa policies, and can arrange pre-travel documentation or last-minute courier services—minimising the risk of delays at the border.
Consultancies advise mobility teams to brief travelling employees to expect longer transit times at Schengen external borders—particularly at Vienna, Munich and Zurich—and to build wider connection buffers into itineraries. Employers should also monitor visa-overstay risk, as manual stamping remains legally valid even when EES kiosks are down, leading to potential discrepancies in travel histories.
The Commission argues that the progressive approach allows technical issues to be fixed without shutting the system down. A new software patch is scheduled for mid-March; if successful, Austria plans to re-activate automated gates at Vienna Airport in April. Until then, corporate travellers are urged to arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure.
