Tenerife South tops the list of European airports where passengers are most likely to face lengthy waits at border control. Ryanair has also said they are the worst affected by delays linked to the European Union's new Entry/Exit System (EES), according to the Daily Mail. The warning comes at the height of the Canary Islands' peak tourist season, when thousands of British holidaymakers arrive every day.

Much of the disruption has been blamed on the EU's EES, which replaced manual passport stamping with a digital registration process for non-EU nationals travelling to the Schengen Area for short stays.

Although the system began rolling out in October 2025, it became fully mandatory on April 10 this year.

The new process records travellers' facial images, fingerprints and passport details each time they enter or leave the Schengen zone. While designed to improve security and speed up border checks, its introduction has led to significant delays at several busy European airports.

Ryanair said Tenerife South and César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport are among those where passengers have repeatedly experienced slow processing times and excessive passport control queues, both on arrival and departure. Earlier this year, the budget airline reported waiting times of up to two hours at several Spanish airports, including Tenerife South, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Málaga and Alicante, blaming a combination of staff shortages and problems with the new system.

The British consumer organisation Which? has also identified Tenerife South as the airport most frequently mentioned by travellers reporting long passport control queues linked to the EES. It ranked Tenerife South number one in a list of 11 airports most commonly associated with lengthy waits at departure passport checks.

Ryanair is advising passengers flying to or from Tenerife and other affected airports to allow extra time for airport procedures and to be prepared for longer-than-usual waits at passport control.