Anyone been abroad recently and can advise about finger print checks at airports?

[mimimoo2]

We have a package holiday booked to one of the Balearic Islands for next week. I’ve heard lots of horror stories about the new finger print checks at passport control and how they are taking hours. Has anyone been away recently and encountered this? No info from Tui about this (not that I’ve seen anyway) but we have a late flight going out and back and worried about the dc if it’s true we’ll be waiting in line for hours on arrival. Do we need to be at the airport much earlier coming back as well?

We flew back from one of the Balearic islands today. No problem going through either direction. DCs are teenagers though.

Return transfer (Tui) picked us up just under 3 hours before our flight was due and that was plenty of time.

Came back from Tenerife a couple of weeks ago and it was fine - I'm European but DH had to do the fingerprint registration and it took no more than 10 minutes or so including queuing. Suspect it depends on when you land and how many other flights arrive at a similar time.

We went to Menorca a couple of weeks ago - no problems arriving or leaving.

Madeira isn’t coping well with it. Two hour wait on arrival. Machines not working, two staff on the border gate checking everyone.

we were on the first flight from uk, god knows how long the people on the two planes that landed just behind us waited.

It wasn’t so bad on the way out. Two separate sections took 40 mins total.

This is making me worry about our flight on Saturday. I have two autistics with scoliosis and my oldest has a spinal injury and can’t wait in queues too long.
My youngest has ADHD and will likely try to run away if a queue takes too much time.
I have booked assistance at Manchester airport, but we are flying Tui into a small Spanish airport…

Ive been to Spain twice and Italy once since it was introduced. No problems with Spain. Things were a bit chaotic in Italy though but no significant delays just confusion by people who weren't sure what was happening.

Thanks all, sounds better than I expected. I saw a video on Tik Tok of someone who said they didn’t realise and almost missed their flight!

I flew through the UK recently and didn't do any fingerprint checks

It was boarding pass scanned and picture of your face

Landed in Ibiza on 10th July, the whole fingerprint thing took about 15 mins.
leaving the country, it took even less time

When was this brought in?? Flown 5 times so far this year (Netherlands Germany) and never been asked for fingerprints?!

😂

No fingerprint at Glasgow airport

I'm flying to Amsterdam next week. At which end do I need to deal with this, at Luton airport or at Schiphol?

Been through twice, including last week
really straightforward and no delays

We did them in the spring and it was super easy. Literally from the plane to getting in the taxi in 15 minutes max. Didn’t take any longer than normal. Coming back it was actually the easiest, fastest boarding I’ve ever had on Ryanair.

Nor at Heathrow or London City which I have flown out of multiple times this year - this thread is all news to me!

I flew in February from Newcastle. No issues going out. We had to queue for 2 1/2 hours in Futeventura. I think the delays were genuinely down to the airport staff trying to be helpful by putting families with under 12's in separate lines. This caused familles to question where to go etc etc if they had different ages. I wouldn't overthink it. Have a fabulous holiday

We got back from Malaga a week ago and it was much better than I'd anticipated. We had to register for the EES when we landed in Spain but the queues for the machines moved quickly so we were only waiting a few minutes. It took us both a while to get a photo it would accept, though. Lots of "move to the left... don't blink... stand on the marker..." before it was happy.

We then spent around 10 minutes at the e-gates because every single person scanned their passport, did the photo, then had to wait for a manual decision by a member of staff.

There was no delay at all coming back – straight through the e-gate to security.

(Edited for clarity)

Please tell me not Lanzarote... Going there next week with my extreme lash wearing DDs.

Similar here.

The "hot" issue is the European Entry/Exit system that's in place for entry/exit of the Schengen Zone...at European airports.

Not sure what system is causing problems at UK airports.

My first trip was a Balearic island and it caused no delay at all, although in fairness I had no kids with me

This is what confused me. I think you do it when you enter a Schengen country.

Can anyone say step by step what's expected at the destination airport?

I think the machines are the same everywhere sadly.

just got back from Tenerife a few days ago (me, OH and two teens) and had no problems, but we were at the front of the queue for the machines, so didn’t have to wait long, although by the time we left, there was a queue, but it was all people from our plane, so that was understandable.

You press the language button, then you have to press and hold your passport onto the machine for scanning, then your face is scanned and then you put your fingers on the scanner. Probably under a minute per person, if you are efficient.

Life self checkouts, some of the delays are due to faffers - would be quicker if people prepared themselves whilst in the queue eg hands free, passports ready etc, rather than getting to the machines and acting all surprised.

So they take your fingerprints both on arrival and departure? I thought it was only on arrival.