Nobody flies overseas for the experience of hanging around an airport, and so when you land you want to get from the plane steps to your taxi or hire car as soon as possible. Unfortunately for Brits visiting the UK, there's a new obstacle between you and that first beer in the sunshine; the European Entry/Exit System (EES), which as of April 12 should be fully implemented across EU countries. Greece has decided to rebel and exempt British travellers from using the system over the busy summer season, however it's not yet known whether other EU countries will follow suit.
First Impressions of EES in Spain
While I had used EES before for a trip over to France, I was slightly dreading trying to get through the system in Spain. I was due to arrive on a Friday morning in Barcelona's El Prat Airport, the second largest and second busiest in the country. While it's thankfully not peak season yet, April can get pretty busy, so I was braced for queues.
The first time I used EES was on Eurostar. The security guy scanned my passport, took a photo and my fingerprints, and I was registered. It took a couple of minutes thanks to his camera not quite picking up my facial features, but registration was done and now I'm in the EES system for three years. So, if I'm already in the system I should just be able to breeze through the passport e-gates, right? Sadly, this wasn't quite the case.
The Queue Experience
Once we stepped off the plane we were all sent to one non-EU passport holders queue. A whole maze of barriers had been set up, which always makes you feel like a mouse in a lab experiment. The queue was long, and everyone was being herded to a few EES machines, a couple of which were out of service. Despite already being registered, I still had to scan my passport to see if I was in the system, although the biometric checks weren't redone. I could then go straight through the e-gates, past the luggage carousels, and out to enjoy some fresh air.
For the people who were registering, the time taken seemed to vary. I watched some people easily deal with the machines, while others needed help and assistance. It's a bit like self-checkouts; when they work well they can be efficient and easy, but there are certainly frustrating moments even for the tech-savvy.
Total Time: Under 25 Minutes
In total, my time from getting to the end of the passport control queue to enjoying my first taste of the Spanish sunshine was just under 25 minutes. I felt lucky that although it was busy I wasn't travelling with my kids during the six-week holidays, as there didn't seem to be enough machines to deal with multiple planes landing at once.
However, given the size of the airport and its busy schedule, 25 minutes isn't terrible in the grand scheme of things. While it may not have a huge amount of machines, Barcelona Airport does seem to have staff who are ruthlessly efficient and well-used to dealing with large crowds of Brits who want to escape the stuffy confines of the airport. With 57,483,036 people passing through in 2025 alone, it's not like they can afford to be inefficient, so while it can mean some patience, it seemed to be a smooth process overall.
