The EU launched a new entry and exit system in 2025, but it became fully operational in April this year, providing some relief from the heat for summer travelers. In the new system, they are now collecting fingerprints and facial images of passengers, but this has led to massive chaos at airports as people missed flights in queues.CNN reporter Clarissa Ward, whose video went viral, said she missed her flight while waiting two hours for her biometric data to be collected.Ward showed long queues of people with non-EU passports wanting to leave Lisbon. “I was standing in the longest queue I’ve ever seen in my life (no joke). It was all because of the EU’s recently updated entry and exit system, which requires a biometric scan for every non-EU passport holder. I saw a lot of elderly people and families with young children. People who have lost touch. Others who missed their flights. Including me. Airport staff only allowed TAP (Portugal’s main airline) passengers to jump in the queue if they were seconds away from missing their flight. What about everyone else? Good luck,” Ward wrote.“Similar situations have unfolded in many European cities since delays began in October. Airlines have begged airports to hold off on the new measures during peak summer travel. EU officials are calling this a ‘digital leap’. From where I’m standing, it looks more like a complete star cluster,” Ward said.Ward received the most criticism as social media users said this also happens when Europeans travel to the United States. “Sorry friends, this is how the rest of the world travels. Yes, EES is a mess, but the rest of the world is used to queues,” one person wrote. Another wrote: “You know what happens to us Europeans when we arrive at JFK? We wait. It’s part of the process. Stop complaining.”
What are the new entry/exit rules?
The Entry and Exit System (EES) is an automated IT system used to register non-EU nationals for short stays (up to 90 days in any 180 days) each time they cross the external border of any of the following European countries. Non-EU nationals are travelers who do not hold the nationality of any EU country or the nationality of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland.Full list of countries under this system: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
