Europe’s New EES Border System Launches in Chaos: Three-Hour Queues, Broken Kiosks, Unprepared Travelers, and Delays Up to 340%

Europe’s long-awaited Entry/Exit System (EES), launched on October 12, has immediately revealed major cracks in the continent’s digital border transformation. Instead of smoother flows and modernized control, passengers encountered broken kiosks, hours-long queues, and widespread confusion.

Within the first week, Brussels Airport reported three-hour waits for non-EU visitors, Prague documented 90-minute delays due to total kiosk failures, and early implementation countries struggled to keep operations from collapsing under the volume of unprepared travelers.

Brussels and Prague Become Epicenters of Failure

Prague’s Václav Havel Airport, one of the few airports to implement full EES procedures from day one, experienced some of the most severe breakdowns. Biometric kiosks failed entirely, forcing border officers to manually process each traveler — a task that dramatically slowed the system.

Travelers described a bottleneck of confused passengers trying to follow a complex new process without functioning equipment. Manual data collection, new biometric requirements, and traditional passport checks collided, turning border control into a slow, one-by-one grind.

Brussels Airport fared even worse: non-EU passengers waited up to three hours in queues, prompting emergency deployment of assistance teams and rushed improvements in on-site guidance.

Uninformed Travelers Deepened the Crisis

A major contributing factor was the widespread lack of awareness. Surveys found that 68% of passengers arriving on launch day expected the old passport-stamping procedure, unaware that EES required biometric enrollment.

This led to repeated mistakes, long explanations from border staff, and processing times that ballooned to 340% above normal. Even passengers accustomed to international travel admitted they had never heard of the system.

Across social media, travelers debated wildly different experiences, from broken kiosks to airports simply ignoring EES and processing passengers manually.

Patchwork Implementation: Only Three Countries Fully Launched EES

Despite expectations of a coordinated European launch, full implementation occurred only in Estonia, Luxembourg, and the Czech Republic.

Elsewhere, the rollout was fragmented:

– Spain tested the system on a single flight into Madrid.
– Germany activated EES only in Düsseldorf, delaying Frankfurt and Munich.
– Amsterdam Schiphol postponed its “small-scale launch” to November 3.

This patchwork led to enormous uncertainty as travelers moved between airports with completely different procedures, technology readiness, and staffing levels.

The UK and Eurotunnel Opt for Slow, Phased Adoption

Although outside the Schengen Zone, the UK is affected due to outbound checks at ports and the Channel Tunnel. The rollout here was equally gradual:
– Only coach passengers at Dover were subject to EES on October 12.
– Car travelers will join on November 1.
– Eurotunnel installed 224 biometric kiosks and promised “no chaos,” though early reports showed inconsistencies.

Eurostar initiated EES only for business and premier passengers, with full adoption delayed until January 2026.

Months of Irregularities Ahead: Travelers Must Prepare for Delays

The upcoming months will bring mixed experiences depending on airport readiness. Fully automated borders in some countries will contrast with near-manual processing in others.

The EES system will strictly enforce the Schengen 90/180-day rule, automatically flagging overstays even by a single day — a change that will eliminate the loopholes previously created by imperfect passport stamping. Many travelers remain unaware of the risks.

As a result, some tourists are already modifying or canceling travel plans due to uncertainty and fear of penalties.

According to analysts at International Investment, the early days of EES reveal a deeper structural problem:

Europe has tried to execute a digital transformation without ensuring the operational, technological, and communication foundations required for success.

Key conclusions:

– The system was launched prematurely, before major hubs were prepared.
– Passenger awareness was catastrophically underestimated, creating avoidable bottlenecks.
– Manual processing erased the promised efficiency benefits, causing historic delays.
– Lack of Europe-wide synchronization turned one system into dozens of inconsistent pilots.

Their bottom line:

EES has the potential to modernize Europe’s borders, but the current rollout undermines public trust and threatens the continent’s reputation for seamless mobility. Without urgent corrections, the system risks becoming a symbol of digital ambition outrunning operational reality.