Britons travelling home via EU airports ‘should allow three hours’ before flights

Entry-exit system, which replaces passport stamps with digital registration, causing huge delays at border checks British passengers returning home via European airports should arrive three hours before their flights are due to depart, an airline boss has advised, amid concerns about new security procedures causing large queues. The EU entry-exit system (EES), which replaces passport stamps with a digital registration, has been gradually been introduced in Europe since October 2025 and became fully operational last month. Some passengers have faced huge delays at border checks, airports have said. As part of the system, biometric checks are done on entry and exit for non-EU citizens. On Saturday, Wizz Air boss Yvonne Moynihan said: “Because there is another passport check … that’s where we see that people have, again, experienced longer waiting times than anticipated.” She told the BBC that, while usual advice would be to get to the airport two hours before a flight, “in these circumstances, we are advising three hours”. Moynihan told the broadcaster the impact of the new checks was “fragmented across Europe”. While there has been “seamless travel” in some cases