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Sat, 30 May 2026

Sat, 30 May 2026 Arrive three hours before flight home, airline boss tells UK holidaymakers

Wizz Air CEO Yvonne Moynihan also advises passengers to carry portable chargers and water due to lengthy queues.

* British holidaymakers should arrive at European airports 3 hours before their flight home due to lengthy queues caused by new border checks.
* Queues have been worsening under the Entry Exit System (EES), which requires travellers to register fingerprints.
* The EES has resulted in 35,000 refusals of entry and almost 80 million entries and exits since October.
* Greece has effectively suspended biometric checks at its borders for British citizens to prevent summer disruption.
* Wizz Air's UK boss Yvonne Moynihan warns that the impact of the new checks is "fragmented across Europe" with long queues at usual hotspots such as Spain, Portugal, and France.
* She advises passengers to arrive 3 hours before their flight home and allow a number of hours between flights in case of border queues.
* The European Commission says EES isn't the only cause of delays and registering information usually takes around a minute.
* ACI Europe expects the situation to "deteriorate further" as passenger volumes increase towards the summer peak.
* Portugal has announced 360 more border officers for airports in July.