Airports in Rome may be forced to suspend the EU’s new biometric border controls to avoid “disaster” this summer, the head of the city’s airport operator has warned.

Marco Troncone, CEO of Aeroporti di Roma, said that Fiumicino and Ciampino airports will have to allow passengers to skip entry-exit system (EES) checks to avoid travel chaos, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Several aviation bosses are predicting a summer of travel chaos following the full rollout of EES in April.

Under EES, individuals from non-EU countries, such as the UK, must have their fingerprints registered and a photograph taken upon entry to the Schengen Area.

Troncone said, “The process proves to be incompatible with the peak volumes that we are going to face. So the only way is to open up the valve. There is no way that we can deliver 100 per cent of the enrolment.”

He added that Rome’s airports are “very worried for the summer”, with his concern at an “eight or nine” on a scale of one to 10.

Lengthy delays and missed flight connections have already been seen in European countries since the EES introduction.

Stefan Schulte, president of ACI Europe, this week called on EU Home Affairs Commissioner Brunner to “stop pretending the situation is manageable and that the EES is working just fine. It is not”.

Schulte, who is also head of the company that owns Frankfurt airport, said that the current state of EES is “what keeps me and many other airport CEOs across Europe awake at night”.

Greek authorities have previously indicated that they will not collect biometric data for UK travellers as part of EES this summer, said the UK Foreign Office.

The Independent has contacted Aeroporti di Roma for comment.

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