# Rome Fiumicino says EES tripled UK border times; Ryanair names Athens a blackspot | EESQueue

> Fiumicino reports average UK-traveller border time has gone from 7 to 20 minutes, and Ryanair adds Athens to its list of airports still seeing 2-3 hour EES qu

Source: https://eesqueue.com/news/rome-fiumicino-border-times-triple-athens-named-blackspot

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- Rome Fiumicino says EES tripled UK border times; Ryanair names Athens a blackspot

26 July 2026

# Rome Fiumicino says EES tripled UK border times; Ryanair names Athens a blackspot

Fiumicino reports average UK-traveller border time has gone from 7 to 20 minutes, and Ryanair adds Athens to its list of airports still seeing 2-3 hour EES queues.

Rome Fiumicino (FCO) chief aviation officer Ivan Bassato told the BBC on 20 July 2026 that EES has roughly **tripled** the average border-control time for UK travellers, from about 7 minutes to about 20. He said "we need to fix urgently certain aspects of the system".

Separately, in Ryanair's Q1 earnings comments reported on 24 July 2026, CEO Michael O'Leary said aircraft "will not wait for anybody" delayed by EES, and named **Athens** (ATH) among roughly 15 "blackspot" airports still seeing 2–3 hour queues.

Athens already had a documented peak of 150 minutes on arrivals, and 20+ Ryanair passengers missed a Luton flight on 18 June 2026 because of a departure passport queue. Greece can pause biometric capture for up to 6 hours under its flex-mode rules, so a long queue there can sometimes clear quickly.

**Airports in this update:** [Rome Fiumicino Airport](https://eesqueue.com/airport/rome-fiumicino-airport) · [Athens Airport](https://eesqueue.com/airport/athens-airport)

## Sources

- [Airport bosses warn EU's new border checks triple waiting times for Brits - The Local](https://www.thelocal.com/20260720/airport-bosses-warn-eus-new-border-checks-triple-waiting-times-for-brits)
- [Ryanair planes, EES checks and Europe border delays - LBC](https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/ryanair-planes-ees-checks-europe-border-delays-5Hjdf7T_2/)

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[← Palma raises border police headcount ~52%, average EES wait eases to 30 minutes](https://eesqueue.com/news/palma-border-police-headcount-average-wait-eases)[Ryanair expands its EES hotspot warning from 7 airports to 15 →](https://eesqueue.com/news/ryanair-expands-ees-hotspot-list-to-15-airports)

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