Our team at Disney Food Blog loves visiting Europe. Whether it’s for Disneyland Paris, Adventures by Disney, or even a non-Disney-related trip, there’s so much to do! But a new change at European airports will significantly affect our next trip.

Charles de Gaulle Airport

If you’re traveling to Europe soon, you need to know about this airport change! There’s a new Entry/Exit System at every airport in the European Union, and it’s already causing looots of issues.

The European Union (EU) just implemented a new digital Entry/Exit System (EES) on April 10th. Instead of having their passport stamped, most non-EU citizens will have to register their biometric information, including their faces and fingerprints, at the border. The system was introduced to make border crossing faster and more efficient, but now that it’s fully implemented, many travelers are reporting longer wait times at border patrol.

Charles de Gaulle Airport

According to The Guardian, travelers have waited up to three hours at popular airports in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Greece. The BBC reported that more than 100 passengers were unable to board an easyJet flight from Milan to Manchester before it took off due to delays at passport desks. Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair, has said the EES was causing queues of up to four hours at some airports.

London Heathrow Airport

“This situation, in the coming weeks and certainly over the peak summer months, is going to be simply unmanageable,” Olivier Jankovec, the director of the Airports Council International’s European division, told the Financial Times. “We are seeing those queueing times now, at peak times, when traffic is just starting to build up.” He believes that the ACI should be able to “fully suspend EES registration whenever there are excessive waiting times at border control that are just unmanageable.”

Charles de Gaulle

But the European Commission is telling a different story: “What we can see from the first days of full operation is that the system is working very well. In the overwhelming majority of member states, there are no issues,” a spokesperson told The Guardian. There were a “few member states where technical issues have been detected, but they are being addressed. It is up to member states to ensure the proper implementation of the EES on the ground.”

Zagrab Airport in Croatia

We’ll keep you updated on the new EES system in Europe. Stay tuned to Disney Food Blog for more travel news!

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