Five hours at the border: Europe's aviation industry pushes back on red tape

European airlines and airports have sent an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen urging her to ease EES biometric checks during peak traffic. The reason: queues already stretch up to five hours at borders such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam-Schiphol, and the situation will worsen in summer 2026.

The industry expects 40 million additional passengers in July and August alone. Current waiting times cause cascading delays, missed connections, and unbearable pressure on ground staff. The problem is that EES, built for security, was not designed for seasonal tourism spikes.

From Notitur's perspective: the EU must turbocharge flexibility or this summer will become a mess of angry passengers and empty planes waiting on the tarmac. This is not about removing controls but activating an exception mechanism when flows surge. If not, the reputational damage to European airports will be massive, and travelers will start looking at alternative routes through non-Schengen hubs.