I spent three hours in a nightmare European airport queue – my warning to all Brits travelling before next summer

A WEEKEND trip to Paris should be romantic and exciting, but spending three times your flight duration stuck in border queues quickly strips away the charm. An evening flight from London Gatwick to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport takes just an hour – seemingly making the French capital the ideal spot for a quick weekend getaway, especially with the recent temperatures soaring past 25C. I got stuck in long EES queues Credit: Cyann Fielding However, my recent break exposed just how bad Europe’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is at times. The system isn’t anything new – it was fully rolled out in April and just days ago, a provision allowing countries to pause the system when airports became overwhelmed, was removed. Sign up for the Travel newsletter Thank you! For Brits travelling to Europe, you have to have your fingerprints and face scanned upon your first entry into the Schengen area to register you onto the system. All following visits SHOULD rely on automated kiosks, but major hubs – including Charles de Gaulle – still process passengers manually as their machines aren’t fully rolled-out or working yet. Read more on travel inspo My nightmare airport story began immediately upon landing at the French airport, after an hour-long flight delay. Following a 10-minute taxi to our gate, alongside all the other passengers I was held inside a warm, glass corridor for about 20 minutes – little did I know this was a preview for what was ahead. Eventually, we were allowed to leave and upon turning the corner, my heart sank. Rather than orderly security lanes, the border control hall resembled a concert crowd. Most read in Travel The self-service EES kiosks stood abandoned and closed off, surrounded by the stationary queues for manual checks. Exhausted children sat moaning on the floor, while adults perched on their tip toes desperately trying to get a glimpse of how far they were from the front. I managed to bypass the worst of the queue by chance – I was funneled by staff toward the automated e-gates. Later, I discovered this was most likely because my old burgundy passport resembled standard EU passports. Getting through Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport took a few hours Credit: Cyann Fielding Blue passport holders, on the other hand, were being directed to the manual checks queue. Airport staff will often funnel these passport holders to manual lanes for additional checks and to avoid overloading the e-gates. Even though I had been filtered to the shortest queue, I still had to wait around an hour to get to the e-gates. Standing in the queue looking ahead, I could see problems unfolding. Not all gates were open, some frozen on processing screens and others rejecting passengers, resulting in people heading back to the line for another machine or wandering around confused where to go next. There was no order. Finally stepping forward to my machine, I scanned it and within a couple of seconds was told to see a border control agent. The gates were evidently getting overwhelmed, as a French national next to me was also turned away. Hidden from sight, at the end of the gates was a lane to an agent. I promptly joined it with only a few others in front of me – though, for each one person from my queue heading to the agent, staff would allow two people from other queues to be seen by the agent. The new EES kiosks weren’t in use Credit: Cyann Fielding Some passport holders are allowed to go through e-gates but these were also getting overwhelmed Credit: Cyann Fielding I was here for another 20 minutes before reaching the agent, who promptly stamped my passport and sent me on my way. Turning back for one last look at the hall, children remained sat on the floor moaning to their parents just metres from where I had seen them the first time. Without the ability to pause EES, it seems airports are struggling. Leaving Paris wasn’t any less painful, though I did not need to wait quite as long. Allowing the usual two-hour recommendation, I was at the airport on time. I had no bags to drop off and I had already checked in, so headed straight for security. Upon reaching the hall, there was a maze of rope zig-zagging towards the scanners. What seemed to be moving quite fast was actually a false sense of security, with at least 10 zig-zags to do before getting to the machines. This process took me at least 20 minutes and then to get my stuff on the conveyor belt and to walk through the scanner myself took another 10. Once again it was carnage, with lines of people everywhere – unclear whether they were for putting their luggage in trays or to head through the scanners. On the other side, I watched pretty much every other case get selected for inspection. Luckily my gate was the first after security and I made it onboard 25 minutes before boarding closed. EES was fully rolled out back in April Credit: Getty Over the summer, airports were allowed to pause the system but as off last week they are no longer allowed to do this Credit: Getty And I am not convinced I would have made it if I needed to check in at the airport and drop off bags – especially as when I walked past the easyJet check-in desk when I arrived, there were at least 100 travellers waiting to be seen. While these high-tech scanners allow us to keep electronics and liquids in bags, the past five times I have travelled in and out of Europe I have watched more bags get selected for inspection than with the previous machines. It appears travelling in and out of Europe has become fundamentally harder. As a result, several airlines have warned their passengers of getting to airports early amid long queues and I am now echoing that. For the foreseeable future, the mixture of new rules and technology at European airports means getting to your flight is taking longer. Allow plenty of time for the next stage of your journey when flying into Europe, whether that’s a taxi booking or your plan for checking into the hotel. Be sure to bring plenty of snacks and make sure the iPad’s charged up if you’ve got little ones in tow too. And if like me, you like to make sure you are at the airport in good time – I really do recommend getting there even earlier. For long-haul flights outside of Europe, I would recommend an extra half an hour, just because I think there are still teething issues with the high-tech scanners. For Europe though, I would at least allow an extra hour – but I will be arriving four hours early to ensure I have enough time for security issues, EES checks and grabbing some food before my flight. And remember, EES checks apply both when you are entering and exiting a Schengen country. Comment now