Airports across 15 European nations are seeing passengers queue for up to three hours at border checks after the EU’s Entry/Exit System went fully live on Friday. The Airports Council International (ACI) said the delays, reported in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Greece, are already straining an industry coping with a possible jet‑fuel shortage linked to the Middle‑East war.

ACI’s European director Olivier Jankovec warned that the situation will become “unmanageable” as summer traffic builds, citing malfunctioning automated booths, chronic understaffing and recurring IT outages. He urged the Commission to extend existing exemptions or allow a full suspension of registrations when queues exceed reasonable limits. The European Commission, however, pointed to an average processing time of 70 seconds and said most states face no issues.

The dispute arrives as the European Commission warns of potential fuel supply disruptions after the Strait of Hormuz closed. ACI argues that prolonged queues could deter travellers and hurt airport revenue, while the Commission cites more than 52 million registrations since the system’s October rollout and 27,000 refusals, including 700 security threats. The clash underscores how operational hiccups can quickly translate into commercial risk for Europe’s aviation network.