Holiday-makers arriving in the Canary Islands faced passport-control queues of up to three hours on 30 May 2026 as the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) struggled to cope with peak-season volumes. The Olive Press reported scenes of frustration at Gran Canaria Airport, where newly installed biometric kiosks repeatedly malfunctioned, forcing non-EU passengers—primarily Britons—to scan fingerprints and faces multiple times.
![Biometric Border Chaos at Gran Canaria Sparks Calls to Relax Spain’s EES Checks]()
Travellers looking to avoid last-minute surprises can consult VisaHQ, which tracks Spain’s latest border-control rules and offers step-by-step assistance with documentation ahead of departure; see https://www.visahq.com/spain/ for details.
The EES, fully live across Schengen external borders since 10 April, records every third-country traveller’s entries and exits to enforce the 90/180-day rule. While designed to reduce fraud, Spain’s rollout has been hampered by limited staffing and equipment glitches at its busiest airports. Aena data show non-EU arrivals in the Canaries alone could top six million between June and September, amplifying the risk of reputational damage just as the islands rely on tourism for 35 % of GDP. Local politicians from the centre-right Partido Popular have urged Madrid to copy Greece’s decision to suspend EES processing during the summer. Ryanair has echoed the demand, warning that continued delays could trigger “boycott” calls among British travellers who contribute an estimated €3.5 billion annually to Spain’s visitor economy. So far, the Interior Ministry has only reminded airports that vulnerable passengers may be channelled through manual lanes when waits exceed 25 minutes. For corporate travel managers, the advice is clear: build longer connection buffers and, where possible, route employees through smaller airports such as Valencia or Seville that report shorter EES queues. Frequent business travellers who have already registered biometrics should keep their proof of enrolment handy, as anecdotal evidence suggests repeated re-enrolment requests are adding five minutes per passenger. Companies with high volumes of U.K. assignees may also consider lobbying via industry groups for a temporary waiver similar to Greece’s. Technically, Spain could apply to the European Commission for an emergency derogation of up to six weeks, citing economic harm. Whether it chooses to do so may hinge on whether the Gran Canaria bottlenecks spread to Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat during the June bank-holiday surge. Until then, travellers should arrive at least three hours before departure and ensure passports have at least one blank biometric-stamp page to speed manual fallback processing.
Travellers looking to avoid last-minute surprises can consult VisaHQ, which tracks Spain’s latest border-control rules and offers step-by-step assistance with documentation ahead of departure; see https://www.visahq.com/spain/ for details.
The EES, fully live across Schengen external borders since 10 April, records every third-country traveller’s entries and exits to enforce the 90/180-day rule. While designed to reduce fraud, Spain’s rollout has been hampered by limited staffing and equipment glitches at its busiest airports. Aena data show non-EU arrivals in the Canaries alone could top six million between June and September, amplifying the risk of reputational damage just as the islands rely on tourism for 35 % of GDP. Local politicians from the centre-right Partido Popular have urged Madrid to copy Greece’s decision to suspend EES processing during the summer. Ryanair has echoed the demand, warning that continued delays could trigger “boycott” calls among British travellers who contribute an estimated €3.5 billion annually to Spain’s visitor economy. So far, the Interior Ministry has only reminded airports that vulnerable passengers may be channelled through manual lanes when waits exceed 25 minutes. For corporate travel managers, the advice is clear: build longer connection buffers and, where possible, route employees through smaller airports such as Valencia or Seville that report shorter EES queues. Frequent business travellers who have already registered biometrics should keep their proof of enrolment handy, as anecdotal evidence suggests repeated re-enrolment requests are adding five minutes per passenger. Companies with high volumes of U.K. assignees may also consider lobbying via industry groups for a temporary waiver similar to Greece’s. Technically, Spain could apply to the European Commission for an emergency derogation of up to six weeks, citing economic harm. Whether it chooses to do so may hinge on whether the Gran Canaria bottlenecks spread to Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat during the June bank-holiday surge. Until then, travellers should arrive at least three hours before departure and ensure passports have at least one blank biometric-stamp page to speed manual fallback processing.
