Key Takeaways:
- Passengers face queues of over an hour at Copenhagen Airport due to EES biometric checks.
- Only three gates are operational for scanning, despite multiple simultaneous arrivals.
- Even residency card holders are being fingerprinted and photographed, causing further delays.
- Airport police acknowledge slower processing but claim overall satisfaction with rollout.
More than six months after EES biometric border checks began at Copenhagen Airport, passengers are still reporting queues of longer than an hour just to get through passport control.
Ian Wilkinson, who works in the marine industry, reported having to wait an hour and ten minutes in the queue for EES checks after arrival in Copenhagen last Friday.
"It wasn't an hour and 10 minutes from landing, it was an hour and 10 minutes from getting off the plane, walking all the way down, going down the stairs, and starting to queue," he complained.
"People were just resigned to it, because the majority of us were Brits, and we're used to queueing, I suppose," he added.
EES Implementation and Persistent Bottlenecks
Copenhagen Airport began implementing the new EES biometric border checks in October, with non-EU travellers arriving from outside the Schengen Area fingerprinted and photographed at border control. The airport announced in April that the checks were now fully implemented.
But six months on from the original implementation date, the checks are still leading to significant queues. Wilkinson complained that the Danish police were only carrying out the EES checks at three gates, despite several flights arriving from outside the Schengen Area simultaneously.
"It just could have been better," he added. "These planes all arrived on time, so it wasn't like a surprise."
Long Processing Times for Families and Residents
Ian Gaze, a computer engineer, said that getting his fingerprints and photo taken had been time-consuming even though there had only been four or five people ahead of him.
"It took a long time, because they had to take each child, each grown-up, and one-by-one, take a picture, and take the fingerprints."
When he was there, the officer on duty had insisted on taking biometrics even of those who hold residency cards, ignoring complaints that the authorities already had their photo and fingerprints on record.
Police Response and Average Wait Times
At the time of the April announcement, police inspector Claus Birkelyng from Copenhagen police conceded that processing at registration could take "a bit longer" for citizens from outside of Schengen, due to the need to register biometric data. He added that the police are "in general, happy with the way it has been rolled out."
- Key concern: Inadequate gate staffing during peak arrival times.
- Passenger frustration: Lack of differentiation between first-time registrants and returning residents.
- Impact on travel: Added stress and potential missed connections.
The Local has contacted the Copenhagen Police requesting details of average wait times, but no additional data has been released yet.
As EES checks continue to be a reality at Danish borders, travelers are advised to allow extra time for passport control when arriving from outside the Schengen Area.