EES - register every time or straight to e-gate (Porto)

[ginforall]

We flew to Pisa in April just as the EES system was coming in, the staff seemed unsure as to whether my 13 year old needed to do the EES registration or not. He didn’t do it, me and husband did, we went to a passport control desk, they stamped our passports. It was busy, hectic and felt quite disorganised. But it was just being rolled out. Just been to Valencia and it was very well organised, all three of us did the registration (said 12+ on the signs) and then used e-gates in and out, was quick and easy. We fly to Porto in a couple of weeks, am I right in thinking we now can go straight to the e-gates and not have to go through the registration thing again? Any experiences of Porto airport and EES?

I don’t know.
The EES seems to be rolled out individually by each country. Portugal may not yet be linked into the EES such that they can see prior registrations for Italy or Spain.

I had to reregister each time I flew into Europe. I queried it in Malaga as I had only registered a couple of weeks beforehand. They told me I had to do it everytime I entered Europe. Not sure if that was just because the whole process hadn’t long started though

Flew in and out of Porto a few weeks ago. Going in (and I've already used the EES gates since April), all passengers were directed to machines to log your face and fingerprints. It didn't recognise/register us after three goes and we were sent to the manual check queue. I would guess (and have read similar), that about 80% of that flight were sent to manual check.

We queued and then as it got to our turn, a senior/supervisor came out and clearly instructed the desk officers to reduce the checks and let people through on simple passport checks. Another flight had landed so the queue was becoming enormous. Probably two hours from landing before we left the airport.

Wasn't sure what it would like on the way back. Got to the airport early and it couldn't have been more straightforward. No queue and no checks. I'm pretty sure Portugal has some dispensation to suspend the checks if the airport becomes too busy.

There was definitely an option to go directly to the e-gate on the way back but as we hadn't been registered going in, I doubt it would have worked. Plus, think only signed for EU, CH and EEA.

From the two airports I've returned from since April, the non-Schengen flights seem to be clustered at the same gates. But coming in, there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to split the queue yet. Plus, for most passengers, this will still be there first time this year.

Thanks for the replies. I did wonder if we would have to do it each time as in Valencia it asked a couple of trip specific questions such as 'did we have enough money to cover the trip' (can't remember if Italy asked all of the same questions). I was pleasantly surprised with how straight forward and quick it all was in Valencia, I'll bear in mind this might not be the same for Porto and plan timings accordingly.

Thank you, yes I've become used to the gates being separate and passing through the passport control on my way out. It was actually the easiest it has been since Brexit when leaving Valencia as the e-gates really sped it up. I suppose that is easier to do for departures but arrivals is more difficult to separate.