A new Airport Council International (ACI Europe) review published on 19 December warns that pilot deployment of the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) has increased border-control processing times by up to 70 percent, with visa-exempt travellers at some Spanish airports waiting as long as three hours.
Under the soft-launch, only 10 percent of eligible third-country nationals are required to register biometrics, yet outages, kiosk malfunctions and staff shortages are already disrupting operations in Madrid, Barcelona and Málaga. The registration threshold will rise to 35 percent on 9 January, prompting ACI to call for an “urgent operational review”.
![EU Entry/Exit System Already Producing Three-Hour Queues at Spanish Airports]()
Amid this uncertainty, VisaHQ’s Spain portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) can help smooth the journey by checking travellers’ documents against the latest EES rules, flagging any biometric-enrolment requirements, and issuing real-time alerts on emerging airport bottlenecks. Corporate travel managers can upload itineraries in bulk, receive tailored compliance guidance, and even request expedited appointments—reducing the risk of costly delays at Spanish borders.
For business travellers the delays threaten missed connections and breached working-time directives. Airlines are warning groups to arrive four hours early for long-haul departures, and some are fast-tracking premium-class customers through manual booths. Employers should budget for extended layovers and consider flexible work arrangements for staff transiting Spain.
Practical advice: pre-enrol travellers’ passport and itinerary details with airline advance-data programmes, stagger arrival times where possible, and brief non-EU visitors on the fingerprint and facial-image capture process to reduce kiosk errors.
Under the soft-launch, only 10 percent of eligible third-country nationals are required to register biometrics, yet outages, kiosk malfunctions and staff shortages are already disrupting operations in Madrid, Barcelona and Málaga. The registration threshold will rise to 35 percent on 9 January, prompting ACI to call for an “urgent operational review”.
Amid this uncertainty, VisaHQ’s Spain portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) can help smooth the journey by checking travellers’ documents against the latest EES rules, flagging any biometric-enrolment requirements, and issuing real-time alerts on emerging airport bottlenecks. Corporate travel managers can upload itineraries in bulk, receive tailored compliance guidance, and even request expedited appointments—reducing the risk of costly delays at Spanish borders.
For business travellers the delays threaten missed connections and breached working-time directives. Airlines are warning groups to arrive four hours early for long-haul departures, and some are fast-tracking premium-class customers through manual booths. Employers should budget for extended layovers and consider flexible work arrangements for staff transiting Spain.
Practical advice: pre-enrol travellers’ passport and itinerary details with airline advance-data programmes, stagger arrival times where possible, and brief non-EU visitors on the fingerprint and facial-image capture process to reduce kiosk errors.
