Italy and Portugal to ditch border controls

ROME, Italy - The European Union's ambitious new border control system is crumbling before it even gets off the ground. After Greece pulled the plug on the Entry/Exit System in mid-April, travel experts are now calling it "certain" that Italy and Portugal will do the same this summer, bringing some relief to travelers who've been stuck in hours-long queues at passport control. It's a remarkable retreat for a system that was supposed to modernize European border crossings. Instead, the EES has turned airports into bottlenecks, stranded passengers, and triggered an airline rebellion.

The Domino Effect Begins

Greece fired the opening shot on April 18, announcing it would suspend the EES for British travelers, according to Lonely Planet. The decision came after weeks of mounting complaints about passport control delays, and it didn't take long for other countries to face similar pressure. Italy looks like the next domino to fall. Last month, 100 easyJet passengers were stranded at Milan Linate Airport, according to Lonely Planet, a mess that highlighted just how unprepared some airports are for the biometric data collection requirements the EES demands. Portugal's already showing cracks too. Officials have quietly started suspending the system during peak times at Faro Airport, according to reports, a tacit admission that the infrastructure can't handle the load when flights are stacked up.

What Airlines Are Demanding

This isn't just organic collapse; airlines have been actively pushing for suspensions. Ryanair has been particularly vocal, calling on Portugal and other EU governments to follow Greece's lead and suspend the EES until September to avoid what it calls travel chaos during peak summer season. The airline has EU law on its side. Regulation 2025/1534 explicitly allows governments to suspend the EES for operational reasons, and Ryanair's been waving that regulation like a flag. "The solution is simple and already provided for under EU law (EU Reg. 2025/1534); Governments should suspend EES until September, when the peak summer travel season has subsided, just as Greece has done," Ryanair said, according to research. The practical problems are hard to ignore. Waiting times at Faro, Funchal, and Porto airports have exceeded one to two hours, according to Ryanair, largely due to staff shortages and the clunky mechanics of collecting fingerprints and facial scans from every non-EU traveler. Tourism chiefs in Portugal have backed Ryanair's call, a rare moment of industry alignment that underscores how serious the disruption has become. Jet2 has joined the chorus too, adding pressure on countries to scrap the system before the summer crush arrives.

The Bigger Picture for Summer Travelers

Here's where things get interesting for anyone planning a trip to Europe this summer. If Italy and Portugal do suspend the EES, as travel experts expect, you're looking at a patchwork system across the continent. Greece is out. Italy and Portugal likely out. But other Schengen countries? They might stick with it, creating a wildly inconsistent experience depending on where you land. That inconsistency matters. If you're flying into Athens or Lisbon, you'll breeze through passport control like the old days. But if your itinerary routes you through Frankfurt or Amsterdam, you could still face the biometric gauntlet and the delays that come with it. The proposed suspension timeline runs until September, which covers the bulk of peak summer travel. That's not a permanent fix; it's a Band-Aid. Come fall, the EES is theoretically supposed to come roaring back, though given the infrastructure failures we've seen so far, it's hard to imagine the problems will magically resolve themselves in a few months. For British passport holders, this is particularly relevant. Post-Brexit, they're the ones getting caught in these queues, and Ryanair has explicitly warned that without suspensions, many will miss connecting flights due to border delays. If you're booking a tight connection through a European hub this summer, build in extra time or consider routing through a country that's suspended the system.

Should You Change Your Plans?

Probably not wholesale, but pay attention to your entry point. If you've got flexibility, flying into Greece, and soon likely Portugal or Italy, could save you significant hassle. If you're locked into a booking through a country still running the EES, just know that passport control could eat an hour or two of your day. The tourism industry's alignment behind suspension tells you something important: this isn't just airline whining. The system, as currently implemented, doesn't work at scale. Whether that's a staffing issue, a technology issue, or both doesn't really matter to you standing in line. What matters is that even the people who want tourism to succeed are saying the EES needs to go, at least for now. One thing's for sure: the EU's grand plan for seamless, high-tech borders has turned into a summer of improvisation. And for travelers, that means staying nimble.