Palma adds UK lanes

Palma de Mallorca Airport has opened passport lanes for British travelers and added biometric kiosks as Europe’s new digital border system slows arrivals. (ec.europa.eu) Airport operator Aena confirmed the change on April 9, one day before the Entry/Exit System became fully operational across participating countries on April 10. Local reports said Palma set aside UK-only lanes in the non-Schengen arrivals area and added 10 kiosks for first-time registrations. (majorcadailybulletin.com) The Entry/Exit System replaces passport stamps with a digital record for short-stay visitors from outside the European Union. Border officers or kiosks collect passport details, a facial image and fingerprints, then log the date and place of entry and exit. (ec.europa.eu) British travelers are a large share of Palma’s traffic. Aena said Palma handled 33.8 million passengers in 2025, including 24.8 million on international flights, and the United Kingdom was its second-largest foreign market with 5.92 million passengers. (aena.es) The timing is tight because Palma’s busiest season starts in spring and runs through summer. The airport sits 8 kilometers from the city and serves as the main air gateway to Mallorca, one of Spain’s biggest holiday islands. (aena.es) The European Commission said the system began rolling out on October 12, 2025 and became fully operational on April 10, 2026. The bloc said more than 45 million border crossings were recorded during the phased launch before full deployment. (ec.europa.eu) For travelers, the main change is time. First-time registration can take several minutes per passenger, and Palma’s dedicated lanes are meant to keep that extra processing from backing up every non-European Union arrival line at once. (visaverge.com) The new lanes do not change who gets checked. They change where people queue, as Palma tries to separate one of its biggest non-European Union passenger groups before the summer rush turns border control into the first bottleneck of the holiday. (majorcadailybulletin.com)