The three main European airline associations - A4E, ACI EUROPE and IATA - once again sounded the alarm over the rollout of the Entry/Exit System (EES) as the peak summer season approaches, in an open letter addressed to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday 29 June.
With airports expecting to welcome “40 million additional passengers” in July and August, the sector is concerned that the operational burdens linked to the system will cause a widespread gridlock.
Fully rolled out in April, the EES has in fact led to a surge in waiting times at borders, reaching “up to five hours during peak traffic periods”, according to the signatories. This is causing cascading flight delays, missed connections, and sometimes forcing passengers to wait “outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons”.
In response to the Commission’s arguments, which attribute these slowdowns to the concentration of flights in specific slots, the letter counters that flight schedules are known well in advance and that, “at present, the system is failing to deliver one of its core objectives: facilitating efficient border crossings”. On the contrary, it is placing border authorities, airports and airlines under “unsustainable pressure”.
The same organisations had already voiced this concern last February (see EUROPE 13805/20): the European Commission had then authorised the Member States to partially suspend the collection of biometric data if waiting times became excessive (see EUROPE 13845/7).
However, given the urgency of the situation, the signatories now want national authorities to be able to go as far as “completely suspending the EES” in the event of congestion during the summer.
In the longer term, they are calling for the creation of a “permanent operational flexibility mechanism”, allowing the system to be temporarily suspended as long as major structural challenges - staff shortages and instability of IT platforms - remain unresolved.
On Wednesday, a Commission spokesperson announced that a meeting with representatives of the air sector would be organised “in the coming days” to address the issue. The institution has not, however, changed its position, maintaining that the impact of the EES is “limited at most European airports” and that it stands ready to step up its support for the Member States if they struggle to “ensure the necessary operational capacity is put in place”.
To read the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/mo5 (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)