Britons travelling home via EU airports ‘should allow three hours’ before flights | Travel
British passengers returning home via European airports must arrive three hours before their flights depart due to concerns that new security procedures are causing huge queues, an airline boss has said.
The EU entry-exit system (EES), which replaces passport stamps with digital registration, has been gradually implemented in Europe since October 2025 and became fully operational last month. Airports said some faced major delays at border controls.
Within the scope of the system, biometric checks are carried out at the entrance and exit of non-EU citizens. On Saturday, Wizz Air boss Yvonne Moynihan said: “Because there is another passport control… at this point we are again seeing people experiencing longer than expected waiting times.”
he said BBC Although the usual advice is to arrive at the airport two hours before your flight, “under these circumstances we recommend three hours”.
Moynihan told the broadcaster that the impact of the new checks was “fragmented across Europe”. While there was “seamless travel” in some cases, long queues formed in “the usual hot spots like Spain, Portugal, France”.
On his half-term trip to Mallorca there were no queues, extra staff available and a “significant amount of staff”. [EES] kiosks”.
However, he told the BBC that the airline generally advises passengers to wait for long periods of time and said: “There may be queues when you land at the destination airport, so you should bring a portable charger or water with you.”
Moynihan also suggested allowing a few hours between connecting flights.
European airports association ACI Europe said in a statement to Travel Weekly earlier this week that “the situation is worsening”: “According to a survey we carried out on 26 May among 45 airports in 20 EU countries, queues during rush hour are reaching up to 3.5 hours. Airports that did not previously report excessive waiting times are now doing so, despite the heavy use of partial suspension of EES.”
Last week, French police temporarily suspended checks at the port of Dover as thousands of holidaymakers faced long delays due to hot weather. A port spokesman described the situation as “challenging” and added: “We are pleased that the Police Aux Frontières (PAF) responded positively by applying article 9 of the EES regulations.” This allows the controls to be temporarily relaxed.
The European Commission told the BBC that EES wasn’t the only thing that could cause delays, with information typically only taking around a minute to be recorded.
