British passengers have been caught in multi-hour queues across Europe after the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) went live on 10 April. Sky News footage aired in the early hours of 14 April showed hundreds of people stuck at Milan Malpensa, with some missing onward connections back to the UK. The biometric EES replaces manual passport stamping for non-EU visitors, including British nationals, and records each arrival and departure in a central database.
![EU entry-exit system causes ‘absolute shambles’ at airports, stranding UK travellers]()
For travellers looking to stay ahead of shifting border controls, VisaHQ offers real-time visa and entry guidance alongside application-processing support. Its UK portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) helps British citizens understand new requirements such as the EES, secure any necessary travel documents, and receive alerts about procedural changes—services that can significantly reduce airport uncertainty.
However, a combination of faulty fingerprint scanners and limited staffing meant processing times ballooned to 90 minutes at several Schengen airports over the weekend. Airlines were forced to rebook scores of passengers and issue delay certificates to satisfy corporate duty-of-care policies. Travel-management companies report a surge in help-desk calls from business travellers asking whether to adjust meeting schedules. Advisers recommend arriving at least three hours before departure, using priority-lane products where available and ensuring passports have sufficient blank pages for manual back-up stamping if kiosks fail. Longer-term, the glitches may prompt the EU and UK to accelerate interoperability talks between the EES and the UK’s ETA and border e-gate systems, reducing duplicate data capture. Until then, corporates should build slack into itineraries and remind staff that compensation under EU261 may not apply to immigration-control delays.
For travellers looking to stay ahead of shifting border controls, VisaHQ offers real-time visa and entry guidance alongside application-processing support. Its UK portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) helps British citizens understand new requirements such as the EES, secure any necessary travel documents, and receive alerts about procedural changes—services that can significantly reduce airport uncertainty.
However, a combination of faulty fingerprint scanners and limited staffing meant processing times ballooned to 90 minutes at several Schengen airports over the weekend. Airlines were forced to rebook scores of passengers and issue delay certificates to satisfy corporate duty-of-care policies. Travel-management companies report a surge in help-desk calls from business travellers asking whether to adjust meeting schedules. Advisers recommend arriving at least three hours before departure, using priority-lane products where available and ensuring passports have sufficient blank pages for manual back-up stamping if kiosks fail. Longer-term, the glitches may prompt the EU and UK to accelerate interoperability talks between the EES and the UK’s ETA and border e-gate systems, reducing duplicate data capture. Until then, corporates should build slack into itineraries and remind staff that compensation under EU261 may not apply to immigration-control delays.
