Rome Airports Warn They May Suspend EU Biometric Entry/Exit System for Summer

The company that runs Rome’s airports says it may have to suspend the European Union’s biometric Entry/Exit System for non-EU travelers during the peak summer season, arguing that the checks cannot keep up with passenger volumes. The warning is the latest sign of strain on the EES, which requires non-EU citizens to register their fingerprints and a facial image the first time they cross into the bloc.

Marco Troncone, chief executive of Aeroporti di Roma, which operates Fiumicino and Ciampino, told the Financial Times that letting passengers skip the system was the only way to avoid a disaster over the summer. Asked to rate his level of concern on a scale of one to 10, he put it at eight or nine. “The process proves to be incompatible with the peak volumes that we are going to face,” he said. “So the only way is to open up the valve. There is no way that we can deliver 100 percent of the enrolment.”

The EES was first introduced last October and fully rolled out in mid-April after repeated delays, and faulty technology has already produced long queues and missed flights ahead of the busiest travel weeks. Whether the system can be paused is contested. Stefan Schulte, president of the airports trade body ACI Europe, said the decision rests with individual EU governments rather than airports, and urged politicians to “stop pretending” the system is working. In early May, the European Commission pointed to built-in flexibility that would allow some functions to be suspended.

The friction is not confined to Italy. French police temporarily suspended the extra checks at the port of Dover in May, and Greece dropped a promise to spare UK travelers from the biometric checks until September. The airline group IATA has said queueing times could reach six hours at some airports and that waits of up to three and a half hours have already been recorded, while a senior Frontex official told an industry event the situation might not stabilize for two years.

The system has been beset by problems since it launched to technical failures and long queues, and several countries have already postponed parts of the rollout.

Sources: The Guardian

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team