SPAIN began rolling out the European Union’s new digital border system known as the Entry/Exit System (EES) from October 12 — with Madrid Barajas the first to go live.
The system is being fired up incrementally across Europe, leaving doubt as to whether it is currently in effect at various airports.
The Interior Ministry has confirmed to the Olive Press that the EES is not yet active at a majority of the most popular airports – but the start dates are imminent.
READ MORE: The big EES digital border system rolls out on Sunday to great fanfare… at just one airport in Spain
Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport was one of the first to go live, having been operational since Monday this week.
Two more high-volume airports that see a lot of British footfall are set to follow suit next week.
Both Alicante-Elche, the gateway to the Costa Blanca, and Barcelona-El Prat are scheduled to go live from October 27.
Travellers to the Balearics can rest a bit more easy – Palma de Mallorca will not come online until November 19.
However, the ministry was at pains to stress that these planned dates may change.
Officials also warned that EES is being phased in gradually across Spanish border points, meaning it may not yet operate 24 hours a day and some features may still be offline.
The system will be fully operational by April 10, 2026, across all Schengen countries.
READ MORE: The top 10 European airports most likely to suffer travel chaos when the EES kicks in next month
The new system, which replaces the manual passport stamping of non-EU nationals, uses facial recognition and fingerprint scanning to record when travellers enter and leave the Schengen Area.
It applies to all non-EU and non-Schengen visitors, including British citizens.
But travellers to Spain beware: The EU-wide rollout on October 12 was chaotic, with airports in Brussels and Prague reporting queues of up to three hours and widespread technical failures during the system’s first week.
According to EU sources cited by Schengen Visa Info, only Estonia, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic fully implemented the new border controls on the October 12 launch date.
Major hubs like France and Germany opted for slower, partial testing to avoid disruption.
The new system automatically logs entries and exits to ensure visitors respect the 90-days-in-180 rule for stays in the Schengen Area.
Anyone who overstays will now be digitally flagged across all 29 member countries, with potential penalties including entry bans of up to five years.
Travellers are advised to arrive early at airports while the system beds in, especially at busy hubs like Malaga and Barcelona.
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