Less than three months after Spain rolled out the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) at major airports, the country’s hotel federation says mounting passport-control delays are damaging its reputation and threatening the crucial early-season bookings for 2026. In an open letter released on 12 January 2026, the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) urged the Interior Ministry to deploy additional border police and ensure all biometric e-gates are operating during peak arrival waves.
Since 12 October 2025, non-EU travellers—including millions of post-Brexit UK visitors—must have fingerprints and facial images captured the first time they enter the Schengen Area under EES. While the technology is intended to replace passport stamps and speed up future crossings, partial roll-outs at Málaga, Tenerife South and Lanzarote airports have produced chaotic scenes when multiple flights land simultaneously. CEHAT president Jorge Marichal called queues of “an hour or longer” unacceptable, warning that “Spain cannot afford for the first contact of our guests to be a serpentine line in a hot arrivals hall.”
For corporate mobility teams, the glitches present practical and reputational risks. Business travellers connecting to time-sensitive meetings in Madrid or Barcelona are reporting missed onward flights, while global mobility managers face employee complaints about wasted hours at the border. Travel-management companies advise building a two-hour buffer into itineraries for non-EU staff until the system stabilises.
For organisations looking to streamline pre-travel formalities, VisaHQ’s Spain portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) provides up-to-the-minute guidance on EES registration, upcoming ETIAS requirements and traditional visa processes. The service lets HR and travel teams pre-screen documentation, schedule biometric appointments and monitor cumulative days in Schengen, helping travellers avoid costly delays and 90/180-day overstays.
The Interior Ministry says the transition period lasts until 10 April 2026, and manual booths remain open in parallel. Officials blame “normal teething issues” and note that biometric kiosks operate in scheduled calibration windows. CEHAT counters that too many e-gates are idle even during those windows and that signage is inadequate, leading to passengers joining the wrong queues. The federation wants a temporary increase in Policía Nacional staffing similar to the summer-surge model used before the pandemic.
Looking ahead, the launch of ETIAS—the separate electronic travel authorisation for visa-exempt nationals—has been postponed to November 2026. However, HR departments should begin educating UK and other third-country assignees about both systems to avoid surprises. Employers bringing in non-EU contractors for short assignments should also note that EES overstay calculations are now fully automated, increasing the compliance risk of exceeding 90/180-day limits.
About the Author
