WAITING times in airports have increased since the introduction of EES – but one destinations has had travellers queueing for up to six hours.
Portugal is a beautiful country for a family break, but the lengthy queues mean that some are spending longer lining up in the airport than they do on the plane.
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EES delays and travel chaos have dominated the news, and some airports in Portugal in particular have passengers waiting in very long queues.
One travel blogger posted on Instagram: “Last week a family I advised landed in Lisbon and stood in line for 6 hours and 40 minutes. Their toddler slept on a suitcase. They missed their transfer to the Algarve.
“EES (the EU’s new biometric entry system) is now live. Faro processes 7x more summer traffic than its capacity. Luggage handlers are striking April through June. And the airport you choose to land in will define your first 24 hours in Portugal.”
The flight time between the UK and Lisbon is up to three hours, so some British travellers are standing in the airport for longer than they’re on the plane.
Queues through Lisbon Airport have been causing frustration amongst many travellers.
One Brit wrote just yesterday on X: “Warning if you are flying to Portugal any time now, actually spent longer queuing than the actual flight, was a shambles with half the machines not working, and further queues to passport control.”
Another said leaving Lisbon Airport was the “one of the worst passport control experiences” with hours of waiting.
The EU’s EES (entry/ exit) system has increased the queuing time for inward and outward passengers by four and even five times as much, according to The Resident.
It’s not just Lisbon either; Faro Airport in the south is experiencing lengthy delays too with some saying that they’ve queued from the terminal to airside.
One big reason for the delays that Lisbon and Faro airports suffer from is caused by what’s called ‘bottlenecking’.
Essentially it’s airport congestion from when lots of flights land at the same time, or delays cause lots of passengers to be in one place at the same time.
They occur mostly at security checkpoints, passport control, boarding gates, and baggage handling areas resulting in lengthy queues.
One of our own Travel Reporters experienced the situation herself in Lanzarote when multiple flights landing at the same time ended up in a three-hour queue through the airport.
The queues have been getting so bad that airlines like Ryanair have even called for EES to be suspended until September – after the peak summer travel period.
While you can’t avoid EES queues, there are ways to make them less uncomfortable.
Make sure to check out our tips from where to sit on the plane to the best time to take a flight.