Ryanair slams EU – issues ‘more time in queues than flying’ warning

Ryanair has slammed the French Government for a "half-baked" rollout of the EU’s passport control system, and urged authorities to suspend it until September when peak summer travel ends. Passengers travelling to and from France during the first May Bank Holiday weekend faced what Ryanair described as "avoidable" hour-long passport control queues due to the Entry/Exit System (EES).

Inrtoduced on April 10, it requires citizens who live outside the EU to provide fingerprints and facial images at border control, which authorities say will help them easily spot overstayers. But the budget airline slammed authorities on May 8, stating they have known for over three years that EES would become fully operational in April.

Ryanair chief operations officer Neal McMahon said: "It makes no sense that countries, like France, are continuing to implement the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) when they are clearly not ready to do so.

"As a result of this half-baked system roll out, passengers are being forced to endure excessive passport control queues, and in some cases, missing flights.

"This May Bank Holiday weekend alone, passengers travelling to/from France were made suffer hour-long passport control queues."

Ryanair claimed the authorities had failed to prepare adequate staffing, system readiness, or kiosks that were in place and working.

The airline has already written to Governments across the 29 EES countries, including Minister of the Interior of France, Laurent Nunez, urging them to suspend EES until September.

It claimed that passengers were spending just as long in airport queues as the flights themselves, while some were even missing their flights due to queues.

"Ryanair’s average flight time is approximately 1hr 15mins – that means that some passengers are spending as much time waiting at passport control than they spent on the flight that got them there," said Mr McMahon.

"It is completely unacceptable, especially when there is a quick and easy solution already provided for under EU law (EU Reg. 2025/1534) to stop these needless queue times – suspend EES until September when the peak summer travel season has subsided and allow passengers a smoother airport experience for their summer holidays.”

The Express has contacted French authorities for comment.