Ryanair Warns of ‘Queue Chaos’ as EU Border System Looms – Calls for Post-Easter Delay

Ryanair carries over 180 million passengers a year. Now its CEO is looking at the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) and seeing nothing but a ticking time bomb. Michael O’Leary didn’t mince words this week: the automated system, set to roll out this November, will trigger “queue chaos” at airports across the bloc unless member states delay its implementation until after the peak summer travel season.

The airline is formally calling on European governments to postpone the EES launch until at least October 2025. That’s a hard ask. Brussels has already pushed the system back multiple times — originally slated for 2022, then 2023. But O’Leary argues that launching during the busiest travel period is a recipe for disaster. And he’s not alone.

Airports, ground handlers, and even some border agencies have privately echoed the concern. The system — which will fingerprint and photograph every non-EU traveler entering or exiting the Schengen Area — is designed to replace manual passport stamping. Sounds efficient on paper. In practice, it means additional processing time per passenger: 30 to 45 seconds, according to EU estimates. Multiply that by the 700 million annual border crossings, and you’re looking at hours of added queuing at peak times.

As previously reported by BullpenBrief, airport bosses have already warned that summer delays under the current system are ‘not bearable’. Add a new untested digital layer to that? O’Leary calls it ‘lunacy’.

The EES Countdown: What’s at Stake?

The Entry/Exit System is no small regulatory tweak. It’s a biometric upgrade to Schengen border control that will apply to all third-country nationals — including British travelers post-Brexit. Once EES goes live, every entry and exit will log the traveler’s name, travel document type, and biometric data (four fingerprints and a facial image). The European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems (eu-LISA) is tasked with building and maintaining the central database.

But here’s the rub: the system will be mandatory at all EU external borders — air, sea, and land. Airports are particularly vulnerable because of passenger throughput. A single EES kiosk processing one person every 30 seconds creates a bottleneck far slower than a trained border guard. Multiply that by dozens of gates, and you get what O’Leary calls “queue chaos.”

The financial stakes are enormous. Ryanair alone saw profits jump 34% in its last fiscal year, driven by surging post-pandemic travel demand. A disruption of that momentum — even a few weeks of severe delays — could slash earnings. The airline’s stock dipped 1.2% on the news of O’Leary’s warning, though it recovered later in the week on broader market gains.

“The idea that you can roll out a brand-new biometric border system at the height of the summer season is not just optimistic — it’s negligent,” said Dr. Helena Markova, a transport infrastructure analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. “We’ve seen what happens when large-scale IT projects go live without sufficient testing. The UK’s eGates fiasco last year is a cautionary tale.”

O’Leary’s Warning: ‘Not a Summer for Experiments’

Speaking at a press conference in Dublin on Tuesday, O’Leary didn’t hold back. “We are heading straight into a wall of delays,” he said. “EES will add minutes per passenger at a time when airports are already stretched. You’ll see queues snaking out of terminals. It’s not a summer for experiments.”

He specifically called for a postponement until after the summer holiday period ends in September 2025. That gives the industry and border agencies a full extra year to test and adjust — assuming the EU agrees. But the European Commission has already invested heavily in the system’s rollout. Delaying again would be politically embarrassing.

Yet the pressure from the travel industry is mounting. Earlier this month, the Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe) issued a statement warning that EES implementation “without adequate preparation and resourcing could lead to significant operational challenges.” The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also flagged concerns about the lack of automated kiosks at some smaller airports.

O’Leary’s blunt assessment echoes a broader frustration: that regulators in Brussels often underestimate the real-world friction their rules create. “They run spreadsheets in an office. We run planes full of families with crying kids,” he quipped. That kind of line plays well with Ryanair’s budget-conscious base, but it also highlights a genuine disconnect between policymaking and operations.

The Industry’s Broader Capacity Crunch

This isn’t just about one airline. The entire European aviation sector is still recovering from the pandemic-era staff cuts. Air traffic control shortages, baggage handling bottlenecks, and security staffing gaps remain unresolved. The BBC reported in October 2023 that many European airports are still operating below pre-2019 staffing levels for border control positions. Add EES to that mix, and you have a perfect storm.

Ryanair’s warning also comes as the UK government rules out extended pub hours for the England vs Mexico match — a sign that even domestic regulators are willing to upset leisure plans. But border policy is a different beast. The EU’s EES is tied to a broader security agenda, including the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which is also delayed. Together, these systems represent the biggest overhaul of Schengen border management in decades.

From an investor perspective, the uncertainty is a headache. Airline stocks trade on forward bookings and capacity plans. If EES causes prolonged delays next summer, airlines may have to build extra buffer time into schedules, effectively reducing daily aircraft utilization. That hits margins hard for low-cost carriers like Ryanair, where every minute of turnaround time is already squeezed to the limit.

David Kessler, senior transportation analyst at Berenberg Bank in London, sees the issue as existential for the discount model. “Ryanair’s entire profit engine is built on quick turnarounds — 25 minutes or less on the tarmac. If EES adds a cumulative hour of delay across multiple flights in a day, that’s a non-trivial hit to aircraft productivity. The math is brutal.”

What Travelers Should Expect

So what does this mean if you’re planning a trip to the EU next summer? First, don’t panic — yet. If the EU agrees to postpone, the system won’t kick in until autumn 2025 at the earliest. But if it goes ahead on schedule, expect longer lines at passport control. Plan to arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure for international flights. Frequent travelers should also note that biometric data will be stored for up to three years, so the first registration will be the most time-consuming.

For now, the ball is in Brussels’ court. The European Commission has not publicly responded to Ryanair’s call for a delay, but internal documents suggest the agency is considering a phased rollout — starting with land borders and moving to airports later. That would be a compromise, but O’Leary says it’s not enough. “You can’t soft-launch a border system. It’s all or nothing.”

One thing is certain: the next 12 months will determine whether Europe’s travel industry gets the breathing room it needs — or faces the ‘queue chaos’ that Michael O’Leary has been shouting about from the rooftops. Investors should keep a close eye on Brussels; the airline sector’s summer 2025 earnings call might depend on it.