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?

Was in Barcelona last week. Queue was very quick. Fingerprints only on arrival

Flew in and out of Murcia recently

queue on way in look horrendous and we were 3/4 of way down it - it moved pretty fast and from landing , registering our fingerprints to collecting our luggage took about 30 mins.

on way home it took 5 mins

FWIW we arrived in Murcia mid morning on a Sunday and we returned on a late evening flight on a Friday

just back from NY and it took minutes 😀

Fom NY? I dont understand I thought this was a EU Schengen thing. And why finger prints when leaving the country?

How do people who think ees operates in Glasgow or London airports manage to work the website to buy a ticket? Does their mum do it for them?

Did you have to register your fingerprints on the way out too?

Landed mid morning in Palma three weeks ago, queued for around 20 minutes. Late night flight home (11pm ish) and walked straight up to the gates with no queues.

I did it In Malaga - queues moved quickly although there were a few elderly people who were a little confused and slower at it.

I flew into & out of PMI 3 weeks ago. Absolutely no delays or issues with the EES system or automated kiosks whatsoever. In fact it was very well organised.

I also had no issues with EES at MUC & CDG in the last few months. As usual the media appear to be taking a few isolated incidents & hyping them out of all proportion to reality.

Never had any delays whatsoever and have flown into EU a number of times since it came in. But I'm flying from Shannon on a UK passport. When the plane lands it is all Irish EU passports. Non EU is about 20 of us. That's probably why.

25 mins in Rome.... Exit though was super quick and efficient. Don't worry

Went through Palma Mallorca earlier this month and I was worried it would be chaotic and busy after reading reviews. It was a breeze,, they have loads of the machines and we walked straight through. It was a Tuesday about 4pm so possibly.not the busiest day. The return the following week was also v straightforward. Longest wait was for the cases to arrive.

I travel a lot. I've seen no queue at all right through to a 4 hour nightmare. Somebody literally died waiting in a queue in Lanzarote!

Despite a UK passport I sail through the EU line though 😊

Took 20/25 mins to queue & get through the passport gate in Ibiza this week, including doing finger prints.

Did them in the ibiza a couple of weeks ago - absolutely flew through. We were off the plane and out of the airport with our luggage in less than 30 minutes.

We went to Paris a few weeks ago and it was absolutely fine. I’d heard loads of horror stories about CDG but we were straight through, just showed our passports and weren’t asked for fingerprints or anything. Return flight was the same

This doesn't have anything to do with UK airports, it's an EU system for entering/leaving the Schengen area.

I flew into/out of Palma in June - no problems whatsoever, took about 10-15 minutes on arrival (we have a toddler so can't use the e-gates but only had a short wait for a manned desk after doing the fingerprint/photo bit) and probably similar on leaving. They had lots of kiosks for doing the fingerprints and plenty of staff to tell people where to go. We arrived at the airport earlier than normal for the flight home to allow extra time in case of long queues - 2.5 hours before the flight - but the bag drop desks weren't even open when we got there so it didn't really make a difference! Flight out was early on a Monday morning and back was around lunchtime on a Wednesday.

How are these kiosks set up? Can I stand next to my 14yo daughter to help her navigate her way through it? We're going to Austria in a few weeks (Salzburg) and she has a tendency to panic with things like this.

Not really rhe fingerprint machines issue, more the in person chexks on the way back.

Did malaga in December and April, December once fingerprint on machines, 5-10 mins on the passport check, back the same.

April -/going there, OK 20 mins as we had the kids, coming back, horrendous we arrived 3 hours before, the passport queue snaked though the whole departures area, took 90 mins, but luckily we arrived fairly early. And still had 20 mins before boarding. fair play to the staff for trying to manage immediate flights and letting people cut the queue.

Madrid in December was beyond horrendous in the way back, no help, the passport control snaked round and dealing with long haul and short haul passengers. Eu queues empty with 5/kiosks and officers staring blankly whilst 3 kiosks for the rest of the world , we jumped as best we could and ran for our flight, many people didn't make the flight. Didn't have the kids this time round..would not have made it

The ones in Palma are in rows so you could go side by side and your daughter will stay close to you. There are staff on hand to help put your passport the right way etc.

I’d suggest allowing way more time than before when leaving the EU country, because they may have minimal manned desks to process passengers on the way out.

(Looking at you Copenhagen, although they were prioritising people with flights departing soon).

All the horror stories are the reason my husband hasn’t booked Europe this year. Is it likely to get easier next year once things settle down?

We went to Majorca in first week of July (on a Saturday if it makes a difference) and queued at Palma, for 2 hours to do fingerprints. (2 adults, 2 teens)
There were lots of staff on hand to assist.
When we left there were no problems at all.

I went on the 11th June and it took 15 minutes
what a difference!

This whole thread is bending my mind, thanks for reassuring me I’m not going mad 😵‍💫