Monday, April 13 – Hundreds of easyJet passengers on Sunday were forced to purchase replacement flights back to the UK, costing many hundreds of pounds, after they missed their booked flight due to delays at the border control at Milan’s Linate airport.

The delays are being caused by extensive queues of travellers waiting to use the new EES electronic border checks. EasyJet described the passport control queues as “totally unacceptable”.

European airlines report that passenger waiting times at some EU border controls can be two to three hours during peak times.

The EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is an automated IT system that launched in October 2025 and became fully operational on April 10 this year, replacing manual passport stamping for non-EU nationals. It records biometric data (fingerprints and photos) and entry/exit details for short stays (90 days within 180 days) across all 29 Schengen area countries, aimed at speeding up border checks and tracking overstayers.