Overview
- With full implementation due on 10 April, the UK government on Thursday warned of longer waits, and airport groups say lines could reach four hours at peak times.
- The Entry/Exit System replaces passport stamping by taking a face photo, scanning the passport, and capturing fingerprints for travellers aged 12 and over, with data kept for up to three years.
- Recent reports from Tenerife South describe hours-long queues, missed flights, and only a fraction of fingerprint kiosks working after computer failures.
- Officials can pause biometric checks for up to six hours to clear congestion, and Portugal used that option in Lisbon after queues reportedly hit six hours before resuming checks this year.
- At Dover, Folkestone and St Pancras, registration happens before departure, and the UK has provided £10.5 million to those sites to help ease bottlenecks.