Less than a month after the European Union’s Entry/Exit System (EES) became compulsory, Spain has joined several Schengen partners in quietly tweaking the way the new biometric border checks are applied. According to guidance seen by Euro Weekly News on the evening of 22 April, National Police commanders at Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Málaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante-Elche and Palma de Mallorca airports may now activate a set of “flexibility measures” whenever the automated gates are saturated. Families with small children, passengers with reduced mobility and tour groups can be redirected to traditional stamping booths; extra officers can be redeployed from secondary inspection rooms; and arriving flights can be re-sequenced to smooth passenger peaks. The Interior Ministry insists that the biometric capture of first-time entrants remains mandatory, but concedes that the 45-second average processing time assumed in technical studies proved unrealistic during Easter week, when volumes briefly topped 25,000 passengers an hour at Madrid.
Source: Euro Weekly News
