Spain’s airports are bracing for a potential summer of queues after Europe’s three largest aviation bodies—ACI Europe, Airlines for Europe (A4E) and IATA—issued a joint warning on 16 February about the rollout pace of the EU’s new biometric Entry/Exit System (EES).
The system, already live at 35 percent coverage, is scheduled to reach 100 percent of non-EU arrivals on 10 April—just weeks before peak holiday traffic. The industry letter to EU Home-Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner cites “chronic border-control understaffing” and unresolved technical glitches, claiming wait times of up to two hours have already been recorded in trial runs. Without flexibility, the groups say airports such as Barcelona-El Prat and Málaga-Costa del Sol could see four-hour queues in August, disrupting airline schedules and immigration staffing rosters.
EES replaces manual passport stamps with biometric capture and automated overstay tracking. While hailed as a security upgrade, the timing worries operators. They are asking Brussels to permit member states to suspend or throttle the system during the first high-season if critical thresholds are breached—a request Madrid’s transport ministry says it is “considering in coordination with Aena and Guardia Civil.”
![Airlines Warn Spain Could Face Four-Hour Queues as EU Entry/Exit System Hits Summer Peak]()
Travellers arriving from the UK, US and other third countries should allow additional time at Spanish airports this summer and monitor airline alerts. Corporate travel managers are being advised to build longer connection buffers into itineraries and to brief assignees on the new fingerprint-and-facial-scan procedure to avoid missed onward flights.
Whether you’re a holidaymaker or a business traveller, VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork side of the journey: its portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) offers real-time visa and entry guidance, optional document couriering, and step-by-step support for Spain’s changing border formalities—helping you focus on the trip, not the queue.
Long term, the system promises faster, fully digitalised border processing by 2028. Short term, operational growing pains look inevitable unless staffing and IT upgrades keep pace with policy ambition.
The system, already live at 35 percent coverage, is scheduled to reach 100 percent of non-EU arrivals on 10 April—just weeks before peak holiday traffic. The industry letter to EU Home-Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner cites “chronic border-control understaffing” and unresolved technical glitches, claiming wait times of up to two hours have already been recorded in trial runs. Without flexibility, the groups say airports such as Barcelona-El Prat and Málaga-Costa del Sol could see four-hour queues in August, disrupting airline schedules and immigration staffing rosters.
EES replaces manual passport stamps with biometric capture and automated overstay tracking. While hailed as a security upgrade, the timing worries operators. They are asking Brussels to permit member states to suspend or throttle the system during the first high-season if critical thresholds are breached—a request Madrid’s transport ministry says it is “considering in coordination with Aena and Guardia Civil.”
Travellers arriving from the UK, US and other third countries should allow additional time at Spanish airports this summer and monitor airline alerts. Corporate travel managers are being advised to build longer connection buffers into itineraries and to brief assignees on the new fingerprint-and-facial-scan procedure to avoid missed onward flights.
Whether you’re a holidaymaker or a business traveller, VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork side of the journey: its portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) offers real-time visa and entry guidance, optional document couriering, and step-by-step support for Spain’s changing border formalities—helping you focus on the trip, not the queue.
Long term, the system promises faster, fully digitalised border processing by 2028. Short term, operational growing pains look inevitable unless staffing and IT upgrades keep pace with policy ambition.
