BOSSES at low-cost airline Ryanair have demanded that Spain follow Greece and suspend the rollout of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) after hours-long queues hit major Spanish airports over the May Day bank holiday weekend.

Passengers travelling through Malaga, Alicante, Lanzarote, Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, Reus and Fuerteventura reportedly faced delays of up to two hours at passport control, with some even missing flights as airports struggled to cope with the new system.

The Dublin-based airline said Spanish authorities had more than three years to prepare for the EES launch on April 10, but failed to put enough staff, kiosks and technical support in place before it went live.

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Ryanair has now written to governments in all 29 countries using the EES, including Spain, urging them to delay the system until September when the peak summer rush has passed.

The airline praised Greece for already taking that step, describing it as a ‘pragmatic approach’ to avoid disruption during the busiest travel months of the year.

Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, said passengers were ‘paying the price’ for what he described as a ‘half-baked’ rollout.

“It makes no sense that countries, like Spain, are continuing to implement the EU’s new Entry/Exit System when they are clearly not ready,” he said.

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He added: “This May Bank Holiday weekend alone, passengers travelling to and from Spain were made to suffer hour-long passport control queues”.

Ryanair’s average flight time is around one hour and 15 minutes, meaning some travellers were spending as long in passport queues as they did on their flights.

McMahon calls this ‘completely unacceptable’, stating that there is a quick and easy solution already provided for under EU law. 

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The EES replaces traditional passport stamping with fingerprint and facial recognition checks for non-EU travellers entering the Schengen zone, including British tourists, and is designed to strengthen border security and reduce illegal overstays.

Ryanair carried more than 66 million passengers in Spain last year and warned that delays could worsen as summer holiday traffic increases.

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