Italy looks set to follow Greece and Portugal in temporarily switching off the European Entry/Exit System (EES) at its airports after just three weeks in service. According to a report published by UK broadcaster LBC on 3 May 2026, the Italian Interior Ministry is preparing a decree that would allow border police to revert to the traditional passport-stamp procedure for non-EU nationals whenever queues exceed 45 minutes. The move is designed to head-off a repeat of the scenes witnessed over the May-Day long weekend, when lines at Rome-Fiumicino and Milan-Malpensa stretched well beyond two hours for some British, US and Canadian travellers.
![Italy expected to waive new EU biometric border checks ahead of half-term rush]()
For travellers and corporate mobility planners who need to stay ahead of these rapid policy shifts, VisaHQ’s Italy portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) provides up-to-the-minute guidance, personalized support and fast online processing for Schengen visas, work permits and other travel documents. The service tracks developments such as the temporary suspension of EES, issues alerts, and can even coordinate courier pickup of passports—helping companies and individuals avoid surprise delays at the border.
EES, which became mandatory across the Schengen Area on 10 April, records the fingerprints and facial image of every visa-exempt visitor and automatically tallies the permitted 90-in-180-day stay. While governments see it as a security upgrade, airports complain that the hardware footprint (four biometric kiosks replace a single manual booth) was never matched by additional floor space or staff. Italian airport operator Aeroporti di Roma says it would need “at least 60 extra e-gates” at Fiumicino alone to keep peak-summer wait times under 30 minutes. Business-travel managers are alarmed. June and July are critical months for Milan’s design-and-fashion fairs and for both Turin and Bologna’s automotive supply-chain expos. “If executives miss inbound connections, whole factory audits slip,” warns Elisa Peretti, mobility lead for appliance maker De’Longhi. Many Italian multinationals are therefore adding one night of pre-meeting buffer to itineraries or shifting arrivals to regional airports such as Verona and Bari that still process fewer third-country arrivals. Rome’s draft decree, expected to be vetted by the Council of Ministers next week, would authorise passport officers to revert to manual stamping at their discretion until 30 September. That gives Italy time to install additional kiosks and to test the EU’s forthcoming ‘Travel to Europe’ smartphone pre-registration app with select airlines on low-volume routes. Officials stress that the central EES database will remain live, so carriers must still transmit Advance Passenger Information and travellers should ensure their passports have at least two blank pages. For global-mobility teams the message is twofold: build extra dwell time into connections this summer, and advise staff to keep old passports showing past Schengen stamps—they may be needed to evidence time already spent in the area if biometric kiosks are bypassed.
For travellers and corporate mobility planners who need to stay ahead of these rapid policy shifts, VisaHQ’s Italy portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) provides up-to-the-minute guidance, personalized support and fast online processing for Schengen visas, work permits and other travel documents. The service tracks developments such as the temporary suspension of EES, issues alerts, and can even coordinate courier pickup of passports—helping companies and individuals avoid surprise delays at the border.
EES, which became mandatory across the Schengen Area on 10 April, records the fingerprints and facial image of every visa-exempt visitor and automatically tallies the permitted 90-in-180-day stay. While governments see it as a security upgrade, airports complain that the hardware footprint (four biometric kiosks replace a single manual booth) was never matched by additional floor space or staff. Italian airport operator Aeroporti di Roma says it would need “at least 60 extra e-gates” at Fiumicino alone to keep peak-summer wait times under 30 minutes. Business-travel managers are alarmed. June and July are critical months for Milan’s design-and-fashion fairs and for both Turin and Bologna’s automotive supply-chain expos. “If executives miss inbound connections, whole factory audits slip,” warns Elisa Peretti, mobility lead for appliance maker De’Longhi. Many Italian multinationals are therefore adding one night of pre-meeting buffer to itineraries or shifting arrivals to regional airports such as Verona and Bari that still process fewer third-country arrivals. Rome’s draft decree, expected to be vetted by the Council of Ministers next week, would authorise passport officers to revert to manual stamping at their discretion until 30 September. That gives Italy time to install additional kiosks and to test the EU’s forthcoming ‘Travel to Europe’ smartphone pre-registration app with select airlines on low-volume routes. Officials stress that the central EES database will remain live, so carriers must still transmit Advance Passenger Information and travellers should ensure their passports have at least two blank pages. For global-mobility teams the message is twofold: build extra dwell time into connections this summer, and advise staff to keep old passports showing past Schengen stamps—they may be needed to evidence time already spent in the area if biometric kiosks are bypassed.
