ETIAS Just Got Pushed to 2027. Here’s What It Means for Business Travellers.
5 min read •
July 20, 2026
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Home › Articles › ETIAS Just Got Pushed to 2027. Here’s What It Means for Business Travellers.
The EU’s new travel authorisation system, ETIAS, was supposed to launch this year. It hasn’t. Insiders now expect it to land in 2027 instead.
That’s not really the story, though. The real story is why it’s been delayed and what that reveals about the state of EU border control right now. If you manage international travel or assignments, you’ll want to understand both.
What Is ETIAS?
ETIAS is a new screening step for visa-exempt travellers entering the Schengen Area. It is Europe’s answer to the US ESTA or Canada’s eTA. It’s not a visa. It is a quick digital check before you fly that’s then valid for 3 years, with (in theory) 97% of applications approved within minutes.
Think of EES as the plumbing and ETIAS as the tap. You can’t turn on the tap until the plumbing works. Right now, the pipes are faulty.
EES went live across 29 Schengen countries on April 10, 2026. It replaced passport stamps with digital records. Non-EU visitors now scan their face and four fingerprints on their first entry.
In theory, this is smart. EES tracks the normally unwieldy 90/180-day rule automatically. In practice, it’s been rough:
Processing times have jumped roughly 70% at many checkpoints.
Verification tablets and other hardware have failed to work as planned, even at sites with major investment (Eurotunnel spent £80 million on upgrades).
Travellers from the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia have felt it the hardest.
Given all this, EU officials decided that launching ETIAS on top of a shaky EES would only compound the problem. One EU-LISA insider reportedly called the idea “illusory.” The official EU website still shows a Q4 2026 date, but expect that to change. EU-LISA’s management board is set to confirm the 2027 delay this September.
The Fight: Airlines vs. Brussels
The chaos at the border has triggered a genuine standoff.
On July 1, 2026, three major aviation bodies – Airports Council International Europe, Airlines for Europe, and IATA – sent a joint warning to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.Â
Their complaint: planes are leaving half-empty because passengers are stuck in immigration lines. Nine member states, including France, Italy, and Greece, back the airlines’ push for a “permanent suspension mechanism” that would let border staff switch off EES checks when volumes spike.
Why Brussels Said No
If a checkpoint pauses EES checks and a traveller enters through it, but then exits through an active checkpoint, the system has no record of their entry. It may wrongly flag them as an overstayer and block their next trip. The Commission also points out that EES is working as designed: in the first quarter of 2026 alone, it caught thousands of overstayers and several serious cases of identity fraud.Â
Brussels says the problem is not simply software-related. It is the understaffed and under-resourced facilities at the border.
Neither side looks likely to budge soon.
The Cost: Billions, and Counting
The World Travel & Tourism Council released data on July 14, 2026, showing that queues over three hours are already discouraging travel. Its warning: if current delays continue, the EU risks losing up to 41 million visitor arrivals and $45.4 billion in direct spending this year alone.
Business travel takes a particular hit. Corporate trips run on tight schedules. A missed connection or a stranded executive costs far more than a cancelled holiday. That’s part of why the Business Travel Association welcomed the ETIAS delay. Its CEO, Clive Wratten, has argued that adding an untested ETIAS rollout to an already strained EES system would have pushed European borders past their breaking point.
What This Means for Your Team
The ETIAS delay buys you time. The EES disruption does not. Here’s how to respond right now.
1. Rebuild your travel buffers
Three-to-six-hour queues are now a real possibility at major Schengen airports, not a worst-case scenario.
Build longer connection windows into itineraries touching Schengen entry points.
For time-critical meetings, consider routing executives through a non-Schengen airport first.
Where possible, explore alternative transit options with lighter biometric queues.
2. Get serious about the 90/180-day rule
EES tracks this automatically, and it doesn’t forgive mistakes the way a border guard once might have.
Use tracking software to monitor every traveller’s Schengen days.
Treat compliance as non-negotiable. The system will block overstayers from re-entry without appeal to goodwill.
3. Start preparing for ETIAS now, even though it’s delayed.
When it does launch in 2027, here’s what to expect:
Visa-exempt travellers from 59 countries – including the US, UK, and Canada – will need a €20 authorisation, valid for three years.
A minimum six-month grace period will follow launch; travellers without ETIAS won’t be turned away during this window if they meet other entry requirements.
Anyone holding a valid EU residence permit or long-stay visa is exempt entirely, worth confirming for any assignees in that position.
Centuro Global Is Here to Help
Delaying ETIAS to 2027 was the right call, but it doesn’t resolve the existing border chaos. The real challenge (EES) is already here today, and it isn’t going anywhere soon.
So, build in more travel time, tighten up your compliance tracking, and get your ETIAS policies ready early. Do that now, and you’ll keep your people moving while everyone else is stuck in line.
If you need expert guidance on what to do, feel free to reach out to a member of our team.
Alice is a London-based journalist, podcast producer, host, and marketer with 5+ years of experience working for cutting edge tech startups that strive to harness the power of technology for good.
The US Department of State has published its latest Global Visa Wait Times, updated on 21 July 2026. The figures show the estimated wait for the next available interview appointment at each US embassy and consulate, broken down by visa category: business and visitor (B1/B2), students and exchange visitors (F, M, J), petition-based work visas (H, L, O, P, Q), and crew and transit (C, D, C1/D). The State Department refreshes these figures monthly, and also reports the previous month’s average B1/B2 wait wherever the next appointment is more than three months away.
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The European Union’s new digital border control system, the Entry/Exit System (EES), is now fully operational across all Schengen Area borders as of 10 April 2026. This is a significant change in how British citizens and other non-EU nationals will enter and exit the Schengen Area, with major implications for business travel, compliance and border processes.
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