Canary islands customs hell!

[Duckingpondlake]

A quick PSA for anyone travelling over Easter. Waited 3.5 hours at passport control yesterday due to new biometric entry requirements. No facilities to get food / drink. People crying, fainting, having panic attacks. Jammed in like sardines, no air con.

Be prepared, take lots of fluid, entertainment for little ones etc. We were caught completely unprepared and had to ration 500ml of water!

Sorry to hear this.

Whereabouts did this happen? Not UK side?

Is this happening in all the Canary Islands? Or a particular island?

We went 2 weeks ago to Tenerife. Landed at 1.40 straight through passport control, collected our suitcases and was in our booked taxi by 2.15pm. Friends who landed a couple of hours later had a couple of hours wait.
It depends on how many planes come in at the same time.

It was landing in to Lanzarote, but the staff said it's happening leaving the island as well.

There's been complaints for months about how it's being handled in this airport. I was in Gran Canaria last week and we were out the airport in less than 20 mins. On the way back it was a similar story. They seem to have it down to a tee
The tourism boss for the island has also been in the press advising how bad it's been.

There is another thread about lanzarote - I think it was saying Thursdays and Sundays were bad due to the amount of flights.

It would put anyone right off. OK some get through no bother, some islands are better than others, but I couldn't deal with the stress of wondering if my flight was going to be the one affected.

I've often wondered if it's a subtle way of discouraging hordes of visitors or what? But I doubt it, it's their lifeblood surely. Might have more to do with the number of flights landing at the same time. So if I was thinking of going, I'd have a look at the airport arrivals schedule and go on a day where there is a gap between landings. But having said that, some departure airports in UK don't have much choice to do that!

The ferry and Eurostar are looking like nice options these days....

And another thing, (and it applies to all airports in Europe anyway), surely the airport management can plan for busy seasons/days whatever. But I think passport control is outside the remit of the airport core business as such, it's border control so a Government Agency. Still, they should be working together surely for everyone's sake!

I was expecting this but when we landed in Lanzarote this week there was nothing like this at all. We just went through a normal passport stamping booth and had our cases really quickly after landing. I hope it’s not bad on the return journey 🙏

I have many family and friends in Lanzarote who travel multiple times a month, after the last thread about this I asked a few people and none have reported issues. Yes it gets busy occasionally but it’s a small airport so you’d expect that at peak times and during holiday periods. It’s no busier than usual.

We arrived in Gran Canaria on Thursday. I was dreading it but it was fine, even while helping my parents do biometrics. Staff were very helpful.