Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has given a firm warning to passengers over delays caused by the European Entry/Exit System (EES). The CEO told passengers that the airline 'will not wait for anybody' if people are delayed by the system.
EES system causes delays
EES is the European Union's (EU) new border system, but it has been blighted with technical and administrative errors which have seen passengers miss their flights due to huge queues. It requires non-EU citizens entering the Schengen area to register fingerprints and a photo when they arrive. These are then cross-checked when people leave, meaning passengers spending longer at airports.
Mr O'Leary, 65, has long been a vocal critic of the system. But he warned on Simon Calder's Telegraph podcast that, despite its shortcomings, Ryanair planes would not wait for passengers who had been held up.
O'Leary's uncompromising stance
"Nothing," answered Mr O'Leary when asked what Ryanair would do for passengers stuck in an EES queue. "We will not wait for anybody."
"If you're stuck at an entry place, our priority is for the passengers at the boarding gate when boarding starts. If you're not at the boarding gate when we finish boarding, the plane is going without you."
"What rights do you have on that? You don't have any, which is regrettable. But we are not delaying our flights for people who are stuck in passport control queues. They have to show up at the airport earlier, but they have to get to the boarding gate, or else they are not flying."
Blackspot airports and calls for change
Mr O'Leary added that there were 16 'blackspot' airports in Europe which were having particular problems with EES. They included Lisbon, Madrid, and Athens. These were susceptible to waits of up to three hours, he said, before calling on the EU to adopt an automated digital system which could be done before the passenger arrived at the airport.
He said: "There are about 15 airports where there are real problems, 2-3 hour waits at border control which, to my mind, is unacceptable. To my mind, this is all something which should be done online. You don't need border guards doing their one-digit typing into systems with a big queue building."
"Everybody puts their details into the Ryanair website. That should be the vehicle by which, if you need EES or passport information, the airline should provide it to the border control. You run into the GDPR nonsense as usual."
"We should be automating all this and taking it online. If you go to the US, the ESTA process, which is basically the same, is all done online before you fly and the EES should be done the same way."
Impact and incidents
EES was introduced in October 2025, but had a six-month phased rollout. Its hard launch was on April 10, but EU rules currently allow the checks to be temporarily halted to avoid queues at peak periods following major delays and disruption. More than 100 easyJet passengers missed a flight from Milan Linate to Manchester last month because of delays at passport desks in one of many high-profile incidents involving the system.
Only this month, a manager at Rome's main airport told the BBC that EES had tripled the time it took for travellers to go through, while the port of Dover said EES checks at the start of the May half-term holiday had led to delays of almost five hours. The boss of 14 Greek airports even called for a serious overhaul of the checks after having to erect gazebos for passengers queuing outside. Greece at one stage made British tourists exempt from the checks to facilitate travel to the Greek islands over the summer.
"We're in the middle of the peak summer period," Mr O'Leary continued. "Firstly, it's not that bad. There are a number of black spots. We've identified 16 blackspots, which includes Lisbon, it includes Madrid, Athens in Greece, where it is particularly bad. It is unacceptable."
"Firstly, this is another dumb regulation designed by Europe, the home of dumb regulations. They introduced them on April 1 and we have pleaded with them to defer the introduction to the 1st of November - introduce it during the winter season, not the start of the busy summer season but no, they went ahead at the start of the busy summer season."
"To be fair to the Europeans, they've allowed all their countries to delay the introduction until the end of October, which is what they should do, but some countries don't want to be seen to be delaying."
