This rigid digital processing is bottlenecking border control and causing historic wait times, on the way in and out of Europe.
As a result, many people are missing their return flights which leave, on time, but without them.
I've dealt with this twice in 2026, in two different countries, who take a different approach, use different equipment, follow different rules, and generally make a nonsense of a "common" border.
But I worked out how to play the system.
First, get the Travel to Europe App. If you're going to Portugal or Sweden (more countries will be added over time) you can register some of your details in advance which ought to make things easier.
I pay extra to sit at the front of the aircraft so I'm off first and, unless we're heading to a coach, first to immigration. Up-front seats can cost £20, but I regard this as part of the price of the flight. If the base price had been £20 I'd still fly, so I don't wring my hands over this. £20 is nothing in the overall price of a holiday.
Arriving at the EU border, the first step is to ascertain you look like the person your passport purports you to be. This is done by and automated system, similar to but not the same as an e-Gate. You place your passport photo page on a reader and look into a camera. Once that step is cleared, you put your fingers on a pad and follow instructions to roll them around (like the old iPhone button) while the prints are recorded. This is not the border - this is registration for the border. The border comes next.
In Spain's Alicante airport this worked seamlessly. When I walked up to the guy in the booth, my passport was scanned again, stamped, and through I went. Coming back was slower but no hassle, although it was not yet peak season.
Entering Italy through the small Olbia airport in Sardinia was a nightmare. I waited so long, I had time to chat at length to one of the exhausted border officials, who'd been assigned the awful task of helping us visitors through a system that didn't work. I learnt the automatic machines fail roughly 8 times out of 10.
"They simply don't work", I was told. "We had six flights arrive one after the other and people were queuing out of the door [onto the apron] to get through immigration". In my case, the Italian automated system simply refused to confirm the photograph on my passport was indeed the person standing in front of its camera. As a result, everything had to be done manually by the two flustered immigration staff in their cubicles.
The staff know it's a problem because they deal with it every day. They've even installed cameras and fingerprint recorders at the manned booths, because they deal with so many visitors for whom the automatic systems have failed.
Oh and if you're travelling with children, don't even bother to attempt the automatic system because the camera cannot drop low enough to photograph small people.
Additionally, if you have booked a rental car, or personal pick-up, allow plenty of time to get through the border. We reserved a car though Booking.com and, for the company they used, we faced our second massive queue of the night. The folk ahead of us had booked to collect their vehicle at the time aircraft was scheduled to arrive. Because they were two-hours late, they faced a surcharge on their booking, even though some of that time had been waiting in the queue for the rental company. From landing to leaving in our vehicle was over two hours.
On our return we were determined not to miss the aircraft departure. Local signs said bag-drop opened two hours early, but I'd had a word with some of the ground crew who told me they accepted bags two-and-a-half hours ahead of departure. We arrived with three hours to departure, started queueing for bag-drop, and had no problems.
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| Security queue Olbia airport |
There was, however, a massive queue for security. Here again I took the economist's view; "what would you pay to be sure of not missing your flight"? There was a Fast-track option to one side with a pay-point entry system and, for thirty euros, we went straight to the head of the queue and sailed through security.
The key to all this is to find the gates for flights to non-Schengen countries.
Even though your flight is unlikely to be showing a gate yet, you will see the gates from which other UK flights are leaving, or indeed to anywhere outside the EU Schengen area. There will be a passport control Exit Area specifically for these gates.
In Spain, after a short queue, my passport was stamped and I was on my way. To leave Italy you have to go through the same procedure as to enter, ie identify yourself to the automated system and then visit a booth. This is NOT the system agreed by the EU, but for some reason, it is the system Italy has adopted. In my case, yet again, the automated system failed to recognise me.
The takeaway from this post is - you can go through this exit procedure whenever you wish! You do not have to wait for your flight to be called to its gate. So long as the airport has only one non-Schengen gate area, you'll be on the other side of the EES system, and hopefully close to the gate ready for when your flight is called.
Most airports have only one EES Exit area - if you know of airports with two or more please tell me in the comments.
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| Empty exit area and still people miss their flights |
There was - literally - not one passenger going through the exit system when we arrived. I asked one of the border guards and he warned, "there are no shops and no cafes after this, only vending machines, but yes you can go through now". We'd prepared with bottles of water, sandwiches, and scrabble.
Contrast our leisurely approach to those who just managed to make the departure, and arrived panting and sweating. I understand from the flight crew that a few more passengers were not so lucky. The aircraft work to a strict timetable for each sector, so the passengers who'd taken a more leisurely approach, or had been otherwise delayed, had been left behind.
Understanding the system is the key to making it work for you. Oh, and avoiding Italy helps too.