With Easter traffic still surging and the EU’s Entry/Exit System only two weeks old, British passengers have reported waits of up to three hours at Palma, Madrid-Barajas and Málaga airports. Airport operator AENA has now authorised frontline staff to divert families and passengers with reduced mobility to legacy passport-stamping booths whenever biometric-kiosk queues exceed 25 minutes. Internal instructions also allow slot-coordination teams to stagger arrivals during peak periods—an approach first piloted in Málaga last weekend. Although the measures fall short of Greece’s temporary suspension of EES, they mark Spain’s first significant operational tweak to the EU-mandated system. Industry groups, including ABTA, welcome the steps but warn that staff shortages could persist through the summer season unless border-guard head-counts increase. Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary has publicly called the rollout a “shambles” and is tightening airport check-in cut-off times to compensate for unpredictable queues. Corporate travel managers should check real-time queue data (now published every 30 minutes on AENA’s website) and build longer connection buffers for intra-Schengen flights that originate in Spain. Travellers who have not yet completed an EES registration are advised to arrive at least three hours before departure until the new workflow stabilises.
Source: Majorca Daily Bulletin
