In written responses sent to Lusa, the European airport association, ACI Europe, says that waiting times at border controls currently reach up to 3.5 hours at peak times, a worsening compared to the two hours recorded in the previous survey conducted with its members on 9 April.

Worrying scenario

In a consultation conducted with 45 airports in 20 Member States of the European Union, ACI Europe concluded that the situation is “worrying”, with several airports that previously did not report excessive waits exceeding one hour now doing so.

"Judging by all the signs, it will be a particularly difficult summer," indicated the association when questioned about the outlook for the coming months in terms of waiting times at border controls and passenger flows.

Problems with departures and arrivals

According to ACI Europe, waiting times have worsened not only for arriving passengers but also for departing passengers, "despite the widespread use by Member States of the partial suspension of the European Union Entry/Exit System," known as EES, which came into effect in October 2025.

The association says it does not have a detailed breakdown by traffic categories, namely between Schengen and non-Schengen passengers or between entry and exit controls, but argues that Member States should report waiting times at border control posts in full cooperation with transport operators.

Staff shortage

Among the main factors identified for congestion at European airports are “the lack of personnel at border controls, the instability of the central IT system and the national interfaces of the EES,” including recurring interruptions and failures.

ACI Europe also points to technical and operational limitations of self-service kiosks, as well as the “persistent inability to effectively use automatic border control gates” and the limited deployment of the EES mobile application.

Problems with EES

The warning comes at a time when there are long queues at the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro, associated with border controls and the implementation of the new European system, which replaced traditional passport stamps with digital records.

The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, on 27 May, again admitted to suspending, at least during “critical hours,” the new border control system at airports, to ensure that the Portuguese economy “is not penalised.”

The Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said on the same day that Brussels is available to support Portugal in implementing the EES, acknowledging difficulties in some Member States.

When specifically questioned about the situation in Portugal, she admitted that the new legislation came into force “very recently” and that, “in some Member States”, there are difficulties in its implementation.

Exactly one week ago, the European Commission denied to Lusa that the queues at airports in Portugal are due to the new EES, pointing out that the processing of registrations takes, on average, just over a minute.