Spain Acts To Ease Airport Queues Impacting Murcia

Spain’s airport operator Aena has introduced new steps to cut passport-control queues after Spain’s rollout of the European Union’s Entry/Exit System caused long waits for non-European Union arrivals. (murciatoday.com) Murcia Today reported waits of up to three hours at some of Spain’s busiest airports, with British passengers among those most affected after the system became fully operational on April 10. (murciatoday.com) (ec.europa.eu) Under the new rules, first-time non-European Union visitors must provide fingerprint scans and a facial image instead of getting a passport stamp, which has slowed processing at peak times. (ec.europa.eu) (europa.eu) Aena’s response is operational, not legal. Airports can redirect families and passengers with reduced mobility to traditional passport-control lanes if biometric waits go beyond 25 minutes. (murciatoday.com) Airports are also trying to stagger arrivals and adjust passenger flows inside terminals, while keeping biometric registration in place for first-time travellers. (murciatoday.com) The Entry/Exit System covers 29 European countries and records a traveller’s name, travel-document details, fingerprints, facial image, and the date and place of entry and exit. (ec.europa.eu) The European Commission said the system started a phased rollout on October 12, 2025 and became fully operational on April 10, 2026, replacing manual passport stamping at the external borders of the Schengen area. (ec.europa.eu 1) (ec.europa.eu 2) The Commission says later trips should move faster because returning travellers usually need only a quick biometric verification once their data is already on file. (ec.europa.eu) (europa.eu) Spain has decided to keep the system running while changing staffing and queue management on the ground, even as other countries including Greece have used temporary workarounds for some travellers. (murciatoday.com) ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said authorities should use contingency measures and ensure enough staff are in place before summer traffic builds further. (murciatoday.com) Spain’s test now is whether those airport-level changes can keep queues moving before the summer rush pushes the new border system harder than Easter did. (murciatoday.com)