EES Full Biometrics Since Sept 7: Worst Airports + ETIAS 2027 €20

The grace period is over. On September 7, the EU’s emergency flexibility for the Entry/Exit System expired — the rule that let member states suspend fingerprint and face scans for up to six hours when queues exploded. Now it’s full biometrics at every Schengen external border, every day, with no renewal planned. After a summer of five-hour waits and missed flights, here is the September reality: where it hurts, who escapes, what ETIAS 2027 changes, and the kit that gets you through.

From the field — Elena Marsh: enforcement end via The Times (Sept 14) and Euronews (Sept 8); hotspot lists via Ryanair/Independent (July); scale via Euronews/Wizz Air; elderly-kiosk failures via Telegraph through etias.com (Aug 13); ETIAS delay via Financial Times through The National. Companion: November cheapest-month playbook.

What changed on September 7

EES — the digital border tracking non-EU nationals across 29 Schengen countries — has been live since October 2025 and fully operational since April 10, 2026. But it ran with a safety valve: states could switch the system off for up to six hours at a time when queues became overwhelming, and France, Portugal and Greece used it widely all summer. That valve closed on September 7 and Frontex says it won’t reopen — no “additional set of rules in the pipeline”. The Commission insists EES works well at most crossing points; the industry counts the exceptions. What September brought is uniformity: the same kiosks, the same scans, everywhere, with no off-switch.

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Where it hurts: the hotspot map

The pain concentrates in the south and west. Worst overall: Spain, Portugal, Italy and France, in the airlines’ unanimous verdict — with Lisbon, Milan, Rome and Krakow singled out for the summer’s longest waits. Ryanair’s 16 significant-queue airports: Tenerife South, Palma/Majorca, Alicante, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Krakow, Paris Beauvais — plus Lisbon, Madrid, Lanzarote, Milan Malpensa, Verona, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt Hahn and Budapest. Other carriers add Porto, Rome and Naples; Palma joined the warning list separately. The pattern: island airports and holiday gateways with high UK/non-EU volumes and fixed kiosk counts. City airports with e-gate depth (Amsterdam, Frankfurt main) cope better. If your autumn break lands on the list, the kit below is mandatory, not optional.

The kiosk walkthrough

First-timers fear the kiosk; veterans barely notice it. Step one: passport scan — place the photo page flat, wait for the green light, keep the document clean and undamaged (creased chips fail). Step two: face scan — remove sunglasses and hats, look at the camera, hold still two seconds. Step three: fingerprints — four fingers flat, even pressure, dry hands (wet fingers misread; wipe them first). The machine prints nothing and stamps nothing — your record is digital, linked to the passport. Return visits are faster: the system recognises you and runs verification, not enrolment — same passport, seconds not minutes. If a scan fails twice, step aside and try the next kiosk before joining the manual lane; a different machine often reads what the first couldn’t. Families: process children one at a time, keep passports in order, and use family lanes where marked — they move while the manual EES lane crawls.

The summer in numbers

Airports Council International logged waits up to five hours at peak; IATA warned of six-hour extremes; Wizz Air reports travellers already missing flights. Since October: nearly 80 million entries and exits recorded, 35,000 refusals. The World Travel & Tourism Council warns up to 41 million visitors could be put off Europe by the waits. And one design flaw surfaced in August: elderly travellers whose fingerprints have worn smooth are rejected by kiosks (Telegraph cases in Spain, Austria, Italy) and shunted to manual lanes — one officer, families, small children, two hours barely moving. Exempt in principle, queued in practice; the regulation waives the scan but not the wait. If that profile fits you or your parents: request manual processing early, travel off-peak, and never book tight connections. More broadly, the system rewards the prepared: enrolment is a one-time cost, so frequent travellers feel it once and forget it; occasional travellers feel it every trip. The friction is front-loaded — and October, with thinner crowds than summer, is the gentlest month to pay it. Every EES trip makes the next one faster; the database remembers what the queue forgets.

ETIAS: 2027, €20, who pays

The second shoe is now officially a 2027 shoe. ETIAS — the pre-authorisation for visa-exempt visitors to 30 European countries — is delayed to 2027: eu-LISA, the responsible agency, has acknowledged a 2026 launch “was no longer feasible” (Financial Times). Terms as briefed: €20 fee, under-18s and over-70s exempt. Note the tension honestly: our September 20–21 coverage relayed the €7 figure then in circulation; the current official briefing is €20 — use the newer number until eu-LISA publishes the final regulation. ETIAS will layer on top of EES (authorisation before travel, biometrics at the border), so 2027 means two systems, not one replacing the other. Cyprus and Ireland still stamp manually — the only exceptions left.

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The survival kit

Arrive three hours early at any listed airport (Wizz Air and Ryanair advice, against the standard two) — and set that expectation with everyone you travel with. Portable charger and water in the cabin bag (Wizz Air’s own suggestion for the long lanes). Register once, verify after: first visit enrols fingerprints and face at the kiosk; later visits verify at the kiosk — keep the same passport, keep it clean and undamaged. Buffer connections: never book the last train out or a sub-two-hour self-transfer through a hotspot airport. Watch the airline’s alerts page from 48 hours out, and know EU261 covers delays and cancellations regardless of cause. And a footnote from this week: Gatwick’s assisted-travel strike (Unite, Sept 17–21 and 23–26) ends today — one fewer moving part. The border is the trip now: plan it like one.