Travel chaos warning as six-hour airport delays hit holiday hotspots

The EU’s Entry and Exit System (EES) was introduced in October last year before the rollout ramped up in April.

It requires British and other non-EU travellers to provide biometric data including fingerprints and facials scans when entering the Schengen Area.

The area covers most of mainland and northern Europe.

Airline industry leaders have warned the new checks could severely increase processing times at passport control.

READ MORE: Major airline warns it could cancel flights to popular holiday destination

Delays of six hours were reported at airports in Portugal and some of the other worst-affected holiday hotspots are Lanzarote, Alicante and Mallorca.

All of the destinations have flights from Stansted Airport.

Major airlines have called for the rollout of the new system to be suspended until after the summer.

David O’Brien, the CEO of Ryanair’s Malta subsidiary Malta Air, has threatened to pull all flights to Malta due to extended wait times caused by EES at airports.

Uku Sarekanno, deputy executive director of EU border agency Frontex, said it may take up to two years for things to “stabilise”.