My experience of the new EU EES system at Faro (and why you shouldn't panic)

Everyone has heard the queue horror stories that have been rolling out in the last few weeks, 90-minute waits, missed flights, chaos at the gates. So when I'd booked a long weekend to the Algarve in late March for a friend's hen-do, I was braced for the worst, and totally prepared to document it for you all to see.

What I got was something a lot more mundane: a functioning border with a 10-minute wait on arrival and 15 minutes on departure. There was part of that was a teensy bit disappointed not to get to tell you all about the chaos.

Anyway, here's what you need to know.

What even is the EES?

The EU Entry/Exit System, EES for short, is Europe's new digital border control, years in the making and finally launched in October 2025 after multiple delays stretching back to 2022.

In simple terms, it replaces the old passport stamp with a digital record of every non-EU traveller's entry and exit, collecting biometric data including a facial image and fingerprints alongside passport details.

If you're a British passport holder travelling to any of the 29 participating Schengen countries, this affects you. The system went fully live on 10 April 2026, though a phased rollout had been under way since October 2025.

Key thing to note. The EES records your name, passport details, biometric data (fingerprints and facial image), and the date and place of every entry and exit. Data is stored for three years, meaning subsequent visits should be faster once you're in the system.

My experience: Faro, 25–28 April 2026

I'll be straight with you: when we landed at Faro on Saturday 25 April, the passport scanning machines were switched off. The electronic EES kiosks were simply not in use. Same story on the way home on Tuesday 28 April. We were directed to the old-fashioned manual gates with border officers doing what they've always done.

Arrival — Saturday 25 April

Faro Airport, Portugal

Queue Time: 10 Minutes. Passport stamp: received. Biometrics: Not taken

The EES scanning machines were closed, and we were directed to the manual passport control. The queue was pretty short, less than 70 people I would say, and we got to the front of queue in no time. The officer looked at my passport, looked at me, and waved me through. That was it. Very undramatic.

Departure — Tuesday 28 April

Faro Airport, Portugal

Queue Time: 15 Minutes. Passport stamp: received. Biometrics: Not taken

Again, the EES machines were shut, and we were told to join the queue. Upon first glance it looked long, we're talking probably more like 175 - 200 people. We were at the front of the queue within 15 minutes, with passports checked, identity verified and stamped in seconds.

In both cases the process was exactly what it would have been five years ago. The officer checked our passport photo against our faces and let us through. Fifteen minutes from the back of the queue to the other side is, frankly, nothing.

Why did we skip EES entirely?

Portugal had already been managing EES with a degree of pragmatism before our trip. Lisbon Airport suspended the system in December 2025 after widespread delays, with dozens of extra border officers deployed to manage the backlog. By the time we visited Faro in late March, the Portuguese approach appeared to be: if the queue is getting long, pause the biometrics. At Faro, they appear to have made that call permanently for the period we were there. Thanks guys!

This isn't technically outside the rules. EU regulations allow member states to temporarily halt biometric collection when excessive queues build up, though this is meant to be a six-hour emergency measure, not a policy. Portugal's informal approach of suspending collection when queues exceed 15 minutes has since been reported as something they plan to continue through the summer season. So if you have a holiday booked to Portugal, you may be in luck with short queues.

The horror stories are real however, just not everywhere

Before you think I'm dismissing the chaos: I'm absolutely not. The problems at other airports have been severe in a number of cases. Milan's Linate airport saw hours-long queues after the full rollout on 10 April 2026, with one Manchester-bound flight departing with scores of passengers left behind after they couldn't complete the biometric process in time. Airport bodies ACI Europe and Airlines for Europe reported that processing times had increased by as much as 70% in some locations.

Spain experienced technical failures at Gran Canaria Airport, causing gates to crash, and flight delays in late 2025. In France, the e-gates which use facial recognition, weren't compatible with UK or US passports when EES launched. Some travellers passing through Spain and Switzerland reported being asked for biometric checks inconsistently, or even repeatedly on the same trip.

The 90-minute queue stories you may have seen on social media? Absolutely plausible at a busy hub on a peak travel day. Faro in late March, with the machines switched off, simply wasn't that.

WORTH KNOWING

Your experience will vary hugely depending on when and where you fly. A quiet regional airport in shoulder season with the kiosks off is a very different beast to a major hub in July with full biometric registration running for every passenger. Just be prepared.

Greece, Italy, Portugal: who's cutting Brits some slack?

The country making the biggest headlines is Greece, which took the boldest step. The Greek Embassy in London confirmed that from 10 April 2026, British passport holders are excluded from biometric registration at all Greek border crossing points, a blanket exemption driven by economic self-interest as much as operational pragmatism. British tourists contribute roughly €3.74 billion to the Greek economy annually, with nearly five million UK visitors in 2025 alone. Athens was not about to let two-hour queues put a dent in that.

The director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in the UK put it plainly: UK travellers will no longer need to undergo additional EES biometric procedures, "ensuring a smoother and more efficient arrival experience in Greece." If you're headed to Corfu, Rhodes or Crete this summer, the border process will feel exactly as it did before EES existed.

It's worth noting that this exemption currently applies only to British passport holders, not Americans, Canadians or Australians, and it's Greece's unilateral call, which puts Athens at odds with Brussels. The EU's legal framework only formally allows biometric pauses in six-hour emergency windows; a permanent seasonal exemption is a different matter entirely.

Then there are Portugal and Italy. Both are expected to follow suit in relaxing enforcement for British tourists through the summer. Portugal's position is to suspend biometric capture informally when queues exceed 15 minutes, which, as I experienced at Faro, means that in practice many British travellers won't be going through the full EES process at all. Italy is expected to revert to a simple passport stamp for UK arrivals until September.

France and Croatia are also said to be considering similar steps, though nothing has been confirmed. The sheer weight of British tourism revenue across southern Europe is creating what analysts describe as a situation where the European Commission has little practical recourse: the financial incentive to keep Brits moving freely is simply too large.

What should you actually do before your trip?

Practical tips for summer 2026

• Check the UK Government's travel advice for your specific destination before you fly, it's being updated regularly as the situation evolves.

• Download the EU's official "Travel to Europe" app, which allows passport pre-registration within 72 hours of travel where it's active, it won't replace the border check, but it can speed things up.

• Biometric passports aren't strictly required but allow use of self-service kiosks where they're running, which tend to be faster than manned booths.

• Children under 12 don't need to provide fingerprints but do still need a facial scan — so factor that in with younger travellers.

• Build in extra time at departure gates even if arrival was fast. Exit EES checks have been causing more delays than arrivals at some airports.

• If you're flying via a hub (e.g., a layover in Amsterdam or Frankfurt en-route to Greece), EES will kick in at your first point of entry into the Schengen Area, even if Greece itself has suspended it.

• Keep a spare page in your passport for a manual stamp, you may well still get one, even where EES is supposedly running.

So, should you worry?

I came home from Faro expecting to have a dramatic story to tell, thankfully I don't. The queues were short, and the whole thing took about as long as waiting for a decent coffee.

That being said, I'm not going to pretend my experience is the full picture. The chaos we have seen at other airport, with passengers who watched their flight leave without them is very real, with the rollout still needing to find it's feet.

The honest truth is I can't tell you with certainty what your experience will be, it depends on your airport, the time of year, whether the kiosks are working that day, and increasingly, whether your destination has quietly decided to wave Brits through anyway.

What I can tell you is this: people telling you to cancel going to Europe this summer need to get a grip, it's just a queue. Yes it's long, and I totally understand that for young families long queues are a total nightmare, but we are Brits, it's our national pastime! Check the latest advice, give yourself plenty of time at the airport, and go on holiday. The Algarve in March was absolutely worth it.

Helena

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