Travel through the new EU entry-exit system stalled at Schengen border checks on 10 April, with some passengers waiting up to three hours and others missing flights. Dave Giles, from Raunds in Northamptonshire, missed his flight home from Copenhagen on 12 April after long queues at passport control.
Giles said there were “probably 80 to 100 people in front of us and only three kiosks checking passports.” He said, “Before long, one of those closed,” and added that “the gate had been closed a few seconds before we arrived.”
Dave Giles at Copenhagen
Giles had been at a music festival with his family in Copenhagen and arrived hours early. He said, “A supervisor was making calls asking them to hold the gate open,” but he still missed the flight. The family now faces costs he put at “about £1,800” and “over £2,000 in total,” which he called “extremely frustrating.”
He said, “Insurance won’t touch it. The airline said it wasn’t their fault.” His account sits alongside hundreds of responses from travellers who described the system as either trouble-free or badly disrupted.
Georgia at Pisa Airport
Georgia, from London, said she faced a four-hour delay on arrival at Pisa airport on 10 April while five months pregnant. “There were no staff in sight to advise on waiting times,” she said. “I sat on the floor and had to tell the people around me I was pregnant and to give me some space because I was almost fainting.”
She said the delay changed her plans beyond that trip. “I was meant to fly to Paris this weekend with my husband, but I’ve cancelled the trip just because I couldn’t face it again,” she said. She added, “I have a trip to Greece coming up, but I saw that they’re now not following the new system, which was amazing news.”
Rollout Across Schengen
The rules were gradually introduced in Europe since October 2025 and came into effect on 10 April in the Schengen countries, which include 25 of the EU’s 27 states plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Travellers reported fingerprints not being accepted, little guidance on using kiosks, and having to repeat registration on each leg of a journey.
Some travellers said their journeys were problem-free, but the reports of long queues, missing staff and repeated registration show where the first days of the system are hitting hardest: airport passengers moving through passport control. For travellers facing the new checks now, the practical issue is time at the kiosk, not the border stamp itself.
