Malaga airport scenario

NoodleDoodleMan

I can't comment on other Spanish airports, AGP is the only one we've used in recent years.

It does have separate lanes for EU passport citizens as well as others for UK etc. Unless that has changed in the last few months I expect that still to be the case.

EU passport holders are exempt the new EES/EEA registration system and should proceed accordingly.

That scenario may change once EES registration procedures are completed by the majority of non EU passport holders and need not be renewed for 3 years.

If only we could roll back the years - I'm old enough to remenber (and then some) when border control staff at Spanish airports would make a percusory glance at Brit passports and pass the holder on with a nod !!!

The Good Old Days - nostalgia ain't what it used to be !!! 😁

MACKEM99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81949122#Comment_81949122

We had our finger prints taken in Alicante Airport last November will that make it quicker for us next time?

daveyjp

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81950111#Comment_81950111

In theory yes. If already registered you can go immediately to egates. We did so recently, but systems, staff and operations can change in minutes!

NoodleDoodleMan

"We had our finger prints taken in Alicante Airport last November will that make it quicker for us next time?"

The initial biometric data registration process requires fingerprints and a facial scan.

Therefore you may also have to undergo the latter at next visit.

Then only one or the other is required to check against records.

MACKEM99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81950165#Comment_81950165

Yes we had the facial scan also last November.

NoodleDoodleMan

Nice one - you are good to go for the next 3 years.

I would imagine fingerprints are the default go to recognition record ?

Ballard

This is a slight tangent to this thread as it involved travel to Tallinn rather than a Spanish airport, but my experience with the fingerprint scans wasn’t good.

My partner travelled on her Italian passport and in and out of the country took seconds for her but I had to queue for half an hour each way.

The fingerprint and facial scanning was fine on the way in, but on the way out it took a good 7/8 minutes and I don’t think that they could get it to work and just let me through in the end , which was just as well as they were announcing that my flight was boarding.

The experience wasn’t helped by the fact that as I got to the front of the queue, the police randomly declared that this was now a queue for Estonians only and was closed to everyone else. I was very lucky that I was next to be served as I could just switch to being fourth in the remaining queue.

It wasn’t made clear why Estonians needed their own queue when they had use of the near empty EU queue but most of those queuing were on my flight.