French airports ‘worried’ about busy holiday periods as EES kiosks still not ready

French airports report being worried as to what coming months will bring, as flexible transitional rules in theory ended after Sunday September 6.

It comes as low-cost carrier Ryanair, which flies to many smaller French airports, is asking the European Commission to continue the flexible rules until April next year.

The firm considers that this “safety net” has ended too soon.

These rules allowed border points to cease collecting ‘biometric data’ (facial images and fingerprints) as part of the EES process, at busy times when queues built up. 

Passport data of non-EU citizen visitors was still meant to be collected to create EES database files for them, and their entries and exits from the Schengen area were stil meant be logged which is the main function of EES.

As we reported on the first day after the measures officially ended, some French border points are continuing “business as usual” despite the change, with the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel notably reporting that they are not yet collecting biometrics systematically.

This is due to the lack of reliably functioning EES pre-registration kiosks, designed to speed the process up by allowing passengers to self-register most of their information, including biometrics, at kiosks, before they arrive at border controls.

What is happening in the airports?

Gaël Léon, legal and safety expert at Union des Aéroports Français, said that the airports were this summer already aiming to take all passengers’ biometrics, either via kiosks (where available and working) or at border guards’ desks.

He said that this is now being achieved at the smaller airports where border control is undertaken by the Douanes (customs) as opposed to the border police and where there are no kiosks.

“In the large regional airports this summer we reached 70-80% of biometrics being taken in certain cases, however there is still plenty of room for progress at Roissy Charles de Gaulle.”

He added: “The authorities have assured us that they will do what is necessary if major problems of fluidity and waiting times were to arise before the end of the year, in particular when the kiosks and PARAFE passport e-gates are not working perfectly in conjunction with EES.”

With regard to the kiosks, he added: “There were further extensive tests carried out over the summer on the self-service kiosks; on average, around 40,000 passengers a week used the pre-check-in kiosks to have their biometric data recorded at France’s airports and railway stations.

“Difficulties remain with regard to scaling up the system: imperfect compatibility with PARAFE for eligible passengers; kiosks that sometimes freeze after a certain number of transactions; and, recently, disconnections from the ‘eagle eye’ camera, which enables border guards in the booth to validate the biometric data captured at the kiosk.

“At present, there is no firm deadline for resolving the remaining issues, but we are approaching a stage where we can envisage the full roll-out of the kiosk solution in the near future.

“We held a high-level meeting last Friday with government departments; the interior ministry and the transport ministry assured us that France will do everything in its power to maintain the smooth flow of traffic at the border after September 6.

“From September onwards, air passenger numbers begin to fall compared with the summer peaks, which will automatically have a positive effect on waiting times.

“However, significant peaks in traffic will soon arrive, particularly with the autumn and Christmas holidays, which means we remain worried about the pace at which fixes are being implemented for the self-service kiosks and PARAFEs.”

He said that several other initiatives are also progressing in parallel and should have positive effects in the coming months once they are implemented:

• Extension of PARAFE eligibility to minors aged 12 to 17,

• Recruitment of additional border guards (provided for in the 2027 Finance Bill and via the Frontex agency),

• Deployment of the smartphone app that allows travellers to complete some of the formalities before their journey, planned before summer 2027.

The app was designed in a standard format by EU border agency Frontex, but individual countries are invited to modify it for optional use at their borders. 

So far take-up is very poor, with the app only able to be used for entering Sweden. 

Also awaited is the coming launch of ETIAS, an online authorisation to enter the EU, which was expected in the last months of 2026 but is now not expected until 2027.