Airports, airlines and travel-tech providers scrambled on 23 February 2026 when three of the industry’s largest associations—ACI Europe, Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA)—sent an open letter to EU Home-Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner. The letter, first reported by Croatia’s news-portal T-Portal, cautions that the new EU Entry/Exit System (EES) is already producing two- to four-hour queues at several border posts even though volumes are still in the low-season range. Austria’s main hub, Vienna International Airport (VIE), confirmed the warnings. A spokesperson told reporters that 65 self-service “EES kiosks” and ten automated e-gates are being installed in Schengen-to-non-Schengen transfer corridors. Low-cost terminal T1A will get temporary staffed counters because space is insufficient for kiosks. Austrian Airlines has begun pushing real-time notifications through its mobile app that explain the new biometric procedure and remind third-country nationals that, from 10 April, passport stamping ends and facial images plus four fingerprints become mandatory. The carrier’s online travel-advice page now features an EES countdown banner and links to the IATA Travel Centre.
![Airlines warn of EES bottlenecks; Vienna Airport accelerates biometric roll-out]()
At this juncture, many individual travellers and corporate mobility teams are turning to VisaHQ for practical help navigating the shifting rulebook. The company’s Austria portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/) consolidates the latest EES updates, Schengen-area visa policies and biometric entry requirements, and even lets users pre-fill digital forms so that paperwork is squared away before they reach the airport—an advantage that can ease pressure on congested border points.
Industry executives fear that staffing models built around pre-EES processing times will collapse in July and August. Munich Airport CEO Jost Lammers—also president of ACI Europe—told Handelsblatt that his airport processes “60-70 percent of affected travellers via kiosks; others lag far behind.” Vienna’s operator, Flughafen Wien AG, says it will move border booths forward into unused retail space to avoid back-flow into duty-free aisles, but calls on the Interior Ministry to deploy extra police. Corporate travel managers are equally anxious. Data platform Perk estimates that visa- or authorisation-related issues already cost German firms €1.3 billion a year in lost deals; delays of the magnitude seen in EES trials could double that figure. Multinationals with regional headquarters in Vienna told the Austrian Business Agency that they may shift summer training programmes online if congestion is not contained. In Brussels, Commission officials hinted that contingency measures—such as suspending fingerprint collection during peak hours—are being studied but warned that legal changes would require member-state unanimity. Austria, whose tourism economy depends on seamless weekend ‘city breaks’, is lobbying for a grace period that would let border guards decide case-by-case whether to take biometrics when lines exceed 45 minutes.
At this juncture, many individual travellers and corporate mobility teams are turning to VisaHQ for practical help navigating the shifting rulebook. The company’s Austria portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/) consolidates the latest EES updates, Schengen-area visa policies and biometric entry requirements, and even lets users pre-fill digital forms so that paperwork is squared away before they reach the airport—an advantage that can ease pressure on congested border points.
Industry executives fear that staffing models built around pre-EES processing times will collapse in July and August. Munich Airport CEO Jost Lammers—also president of ACI Europe—told Handelsblatt that his airport processes “60-70 percent of affected travellers via kiosks; others lag far behind.” Vienna’s operator, Flughafen Wien AG, says it will move border booths forward into unused retail space to avoid back-flow into duty-free aisles, but calls on the Interior Ministry to deploy extra police. Corporate travel managers are equally anxious. Data platform Perk estimates that visa- or authorisation-related issues already cost German firms €1.3 billion a year in lost deals; delays of the magnitude seen in EES trials could double that figure. Multinationals with regional headquarters in Vienna told the Austrian Business Agency that they may shift summer training programmes online if congestion is not contained. In Brussels, Commission officials hinted that contingency measures—such as suspending fingerprint collection during peak hours—are being studied but warned that legal changes would require member-state unanimity. Austria, whose tourism economy depends on seamless weekend ‘city breaks’, is lobbying for a grace period that would let border guards decide case-by-case whether to take biometrics when lines exceed 45 minutes.
