To ask for your Easter holiday airport stories - new passport control system/strikes/fuel chaos or pretty chill?

[CurdinHenry]

I stayed at home because I was scared but hope dozens of people are now going to tell me it was all ok

The woman at the adjacent passport control booth on exiting was asked to do the fingerprints again, despite having done them a few days previously on entry - she asked why and the immigration officer said it was because they hadn’t been registered properly. I also had to do my fingerprints and be photographed again, four days after having done both on the way in.

So yes, I suspect we’ll have to go through it every time we enter / exit.

Yeah. It takes like one second less allegedly but you still have to fanny about with the kiosks

Went to the US. Despite all the TSA horror stories it was a breeze - minimal queues and good flights.

I didn't think Berlin was that bad. I had a European passport so walked through and waited for our bags. Think Dh and the DC were about half an hour behind me.
On the way back, it was literally 5 mins difference between my queue and theirs.

We had the same experience on arrival into Catania last week. Queued for over an hour because we had children under 14 whilst others could simply use the machines and go straight through. It ended up being a very long queue full of families with young children. It would have been better if there was communication about it, if they had explained what was going on but they didn’t say anything.

We only had to do the fingerprint checks on arrival at Palma Mallorca, not when leaving. Though as I said below the passport queue for families was an hour long. It's as clear as mud what's going on tbh.

No queues at Alicante for us on Saturday night. Off the plane, picked the cases off the belt and in the car within 20 minutes

I flew into Paris and back over Easter. No new checks at all, just the usual stamps. I did see them installing lots of new machines in St Pancras today for Eurostar.

Daughter flew in/out of Berlin before easter and new system was in place but wasn't too bad. Same when she flew in/out of Bergerac last week. Son coming back from Bergerac tomorrow so will ask him how it went for him.

Very glad I no longer have small children: long airport queues are no fun for anyone but especially with wee ones.

It seems that way, yes.
It allegedly stores the data for 3 years but it seems like each time you enter and exit you still have to provide the photo and fingerprints to be checked against the stored data, so in practice it makes no difference.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/15/eu-entry-exit-system-ees-delays-airports-border-checks

Airports Council International (Europe) clearly concerned.

We flew into Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) on the 5/04 and it was fine other than being yelled at repeatedly by the staff. Everyone was being sent to the machines, only to get in the queue and be yelled at that as a family with under 12s we should go to the desk. When we then moved to the desk we were yelled at to go to the machine… waited at the desk and were through within 10 minutes. On our return on Sunday it was also quick and there was no yelling!

Schiphol was 10 minutes. It was an hour at new year, so I think we just got lucky

Same for us. Schipol was fine both ways, no queues.

Not for me, flew back to the UK on Easter Sunday.

5 minutes security, no wait at all at passport control.

I’m exempt from EES so no need for the photos and scans etc but only have UK passport so obv have to still queue up and have nearly missed two work flights in the last month, nightmare. Fingers crossed it all beds in and calms down soon, truly Brexit is the gift that won’t stop giving eh :)

We flew into Reus. The screens and scanners slowed us down by a few minutes (and asked whether we had a ridiculous amount of cash available for our stay - obv a glitch as it was about 7 figures!) on the way in.

On the way out we scanned our passports and apart from a slower decision as to whether to open the gates or not ("Awaiting police decision") 2 of us got through quickly and with no problems. 25yo DD was told she wasn't registered. The staff member told her it prob hadn't saved properly and directed her to another screen. 2 mins later she'd done it again to be told she had been on the system after all.

So still a little glitchy but nothing that slowed us down hugely.

I know people who were stuck out there as their flight was cancelled.

We flew in and out of Gothenburg during Easter hols. Fingerprints and photos for all of us in both directions. Didn’t take too long, but the airport was pretty quiet. It took the border control officer about 5 attempts though to scan my DDs fingerprints on exit, so can imagine that would lead to delays if replicated through a heavy queue of people!

Queue to get through passport control was about 15 minutes in Athens. Looks from what I’ve read Greece has decided to turn the ESS system off.

EES even. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/greece-eu-entry-exit-system-ees-biometrics-british-travellers-b2960369.html

Rome was a mess. I was directed to the machine which scanned my passport and took a photo but didn’t ask for fingerprints. I was then directed to the e-gates. Then after the e-gates I was directed to a desk where someone stamped my passport. Everyone else was the same (unless they had an EU passport). It took about an hour. My EU spouse went through in about 30 seconds and had lunch while I shuffled slowly through the many steps. I was ready for it though so just went with it.

Outbound was even quicker, no queue at all. Have to say I was very impressed by Athens airport inbound and outbound.

The initial registration process involves two stages to enter the country - first the machines to register your details, then the egates to check your fingerprints and photo against that saved record and admit you to the country. In subsequent trips within the 3 years you just go straight to the egates. If you are finding you are having to do both stages each time there must have been a problem with the equipment at some stage. Have you tried just going to the egates?

I’ve only had to do egates since first registration - that’s 5 trips. And last 2 trips no passport stamps, just waved through. That’s how it is supposed to work. However, it seems that faulty systems and untrained staff are making a lot of repeat registrations necessary in a lot of airports. Hopefully the glitches get fixed soon and the system will start operating as intended throughout the Shengen area.

Everyone had to go to the ebooths and then was directed from the booths to the desk. The booth were before the desk and the desk was the only way into the country - it wasn’t either or. At both stages photos and fingerprints were taken (ie twice in that country, and DH and I had already had them taken in a different EU country 2 weeks previously.)