For those traveling to Schengen EU this summer, I would advise against short transfer times for connecting flights or trains the day you land.

The new biometric screening has been a disaster. Several airports have postponed the rollout due to extremely excessive wait times. It's expected to be fully rolled out by mid April.

Highlights of what I've heard:
- Lisbon Airport reportedly saw waits up to seven hours and temporarily suspended the system;
- Geneva Airport has allegedly shut it down multiple times due to congestion;
-Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is said to be funneling U.S. and U.K. travelers into manual passport control because e-gates aren't fully configured;
- Leonardo da VinciFiumicino Airport and Milan Malpensa Airport are reporting excessive delays (over 3 hours at certain points).


I've had a hard time finding an up to date article on it, but one of my friends missed her 3hr connection in Rome last week.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/05/travel-industry-fears-summer-disruption-biometric-checks-controls-ees-european-borders?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Bumping back up to the top here, has anyone traveled recently to gauge the implementation and challenge hopping between countries?

I've had a couple clients go recently.

1: Landed in AMS and it took 30 mins. They were sorted into two lines and the other line was longer and moving much slower.

2: Landed in AMS and it took 90 mins.

Sitting closer to the front of the plane or paying for Airport fast track seem to be the only things people can do to minimize it.

It's only upon arrival into the Schengen areas so you shouldn't have problems if you're flying around in Europe.

We flew out of Munich a week ago. Took almost an hour both into and out of the country to get through immigration.

Also flew into Munich, on 24 April. Took us about 30 minutes to get through with the new system.

Flew out of Milan back to U.S. without any issue at all.

Landed in Barcelona 4/8. Took a bit over 2 hours to get through customs. It was chaotic.

When we finally got to the new EES stations, it worked fine for my wife, not for me. She went fairly quickly through the last metered checkpoint, and waited on the other side ~ 30 minutes - for me to process through.

While this was going on the lines behind us continued to grow.

Hoping it's gotten better since then, but doesn't sound like it if Italy is putting a pause on the system.

We head back home, from Milan, 6/17. I'm assuming the flight out should be much smoother.

Y'all just make sure customs back in the states are working properly for us.

For anyone interested, this is who I book with, you can see pricing and their services online.

https://fastrackvip.com/

RC_57 said:

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Landed in Barcelona 4/8. Took a bit over 2 hours to get through customs. It was chaotic.

When we finally got to the new EES stations, it worked fine for my wife, not for me. She went fairly quickly through the last metered checkpoint, and waited on the other side ~ 30 minutes - for me to process through.

While this was going on the lines behind us continued to grow.

Hoping it's gotten better since then, but doesn't sound like it if Italy is putting a pause on the system.

We head back home, from Milan, 6/17. I'm assuming the flight out should be much smoother.

Y'all just make sure customs back in the states are working properly for us.

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Yeah, good luck with that. Because, apparently, customs never looks at flight schedules. Last time I flew back from Frankfurt, 3 widebodies landed about 15 minutes apart.

Customs had two lines open for about 600 people.

I went through EES at Milan Malpensa (MXP) Thursday morning and it was a breeze. Forty minutes from the time we pulled up to the gate and the time I arrived at the train platform for the ride into the city, after retrieving a checked bag. I did catch a couple of breaks in that I was premium economy and, when I got to the scanner line, they broke us in half right at my place in the line, so I jumped in front of about 20 people, but no glitches whatsoever in getting the passport, facial recognition photo, and fingerprints done. I think they have worked out some of the bugs.

From what y'all have seen on these lines, is there any benefit in being business class on your flights in or out?

kithas said:

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From what y'all have seen on these lines, is there any benefit in being business class on your flights in or out?

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Can't say, as I was right behind business and probably got to go in front of several of them from my flight. I do believe they had connecting passengers go to a separate area, so if that is your concern, connecting passengers may be getting special treatment, at least at MXP.