Humberto Delgado Airport, Lisbon
Biometrics collection at departures from Lisbon, Faro and Porto airports was intermittent during the weekend. It was suspended when the waiting time was high.
Travel continues to be neither easy (nor fluid) at Portuguese airports. Therefore, during some periods this weekend, the biometrics (a security mechanism) has been stopped.
“Whenever we exceed the reference time, we will automatically suspend the biometric collection”, the PSP spokesperson explained to Lusa, Sergio Soaresleaving the guarantee that “biometric collection does not influence usual border control in any way” and that all Schengen Area border code protocols are being complied with.
Collection was suspended this Sunday morning at Humberto Delgado airport, in Lisboaat Francisco Sá Carneiro airport, in Portoand at Gago Coutinho airport, in Faroand was resumed in the early afternoon, having been interrupted again due to the high number of people waiting, added the same source.
The suspension of biometrics is an operational decision, the PSP spokesperson also explained, highlighting that “departure control is being done safelyin the usual model and complying with the defined protocols”, but without collecting biometric data.
A system only for those who have time
Whenever the reference time is resumed and passengers are not at risk of missing their flight, which system is reactivated again.
On Saturday, the collection of biometric data had already been suspended during the morning to prevent passengers from missing their flights due to long queues.
The European Entry/Exit System (EES) is an automated European Union (EU) system that replaces the stamp in the passport with the digital record of biometric data (photo and fingerprints) for non-European Union citizens and is being implemented in the EU in a phased manner since October 2025. starting to work (or it would be supposed to be so) 100% since Friday.
This new system went into operation on October 12th in Portugal and the other countries in the Schengen area and, since then, the waiting times at air borders got worsemainly at Lisbon airport, with .
The introduction on December 10th at Portuguese airports of the second phase of the EES, which consists of the collection of biometric data, caused even more embarrassment at Lisbon airport.
At the end of December, at Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon, to reduce waiting times in the arrivals area, namely the three-month suspension of the EES, which has since resumed operation.
