 Poster: A snowHead
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@mountainaddict, thanks, so potentially will have to queue all the way down until that point on a bad day!!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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^^^ 'Fraid so @kitenski  Fortunately we've arrived early evening, and not on a Saturday, on our trips to date - so have had no queuing at all before the fingerprint machines.
Good luck!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Poprad Airport, Slovakia
10 January 2026
Last off the plane (on purpose, couldn't deal with the pushing and shoving and waiting on the tarmac. The arrivals area is small).
30 minutes from walking off the plane to walking out the front door of the airport with my bags.
The line for photo and fingerprints moved steadily and easily. Majority on the plane were non-EU.
On my return to UK from Kosice Airport it took less than a minute to do the photo & fingerprint checks.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Lots of Snowheads flying into Venice in next couple of days. I arrive 09.40 Saturday, so will report.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Leaving Innsbruck: snaking queue for the non-Schengen gates for border and biometric checks; lots of booths and a bit of a delay but moved quickly and smoothly. EU passpost single queue virtually empty and pretty much straight through.
Innsbruck seems to have got its act together pretty well.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Mahoosive queue for passport control right now at Geneva. Reckon it will be an hour.
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@JDL65, Are you on the way in or out. Mate just left and was about 35 minutes heading to the gates.
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@JDL65, I’m in it as well. I reckon 90 mins now and getting worse.
Inbound (arrivals) for me.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Verona Airport
Friday 16 January 2026 (evening)
We were compelled do this, together with the usual passport control the total time taken was 30 minutes or thereabouts. But it would be way longer if the airport was busy.
I’ve not yet read up on the protocol …. does this mean we won’t now need to ever set again with fingerprints etc?
[footnote …. Italians and other EU nationals were compelled to join the same passport check queues as us Brits].
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| Snow&skifan wrote: |
Verona Airport
Friday 16 January 2026 (evening)
We were compelled do this, together with the usual passport control the total time taken was 30 minutes or thereabouts. But it would be way longer if the airport was busy.
I’ve not yet read up on the protocol …. does this mean we won’t now need to ever set again with fingerprints etc?
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In theory they are valid for 3 years.
But until they are all properly connected to the central systems, you are likley to have to do it again on entry via a different airport. And I'm not sure how many airports allow you to bypass the EES kiosks anyhow.
At Salzburg last week, the new system was in a separate building. On entry, there was a sort of central plaza with at least a dozen EES kiosks around, then passport control booths around the edge of the room. You registered at which ever kiosk you fancied, choosing one with no queue or a short queue, then went to the passport booth. There was nothing to stop you going straight to a passport booth, which is what I imagine ytou will do onc e registered. If youy went to a passport booth without registering, I'm not sure whether they sent you back to the kiosks, or whether they would carry oiut the registration process at the booth.
After the passport booths, you followed a corridor round the outside of the room to an exit door, where you got on a bus to baggage reclaim.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We were inbound. Luckily I have an Irish passport though my son doesn't yet. After 40 minutes in the non-EU queue we were allowed to both go in the EU one ans sailed through. I reckon the main queue was likely to be well over 2 hours judging by how little we had moved in the first 40 minutes.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Just started snowing in La Clusaz though
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@JDL65, they turned off the machines and opened some more desks so we were only an hour in the end.
A mate on a flight 3hrs later had no queue at all. And also avoided the hour plus of traffic to get out of Geneva.
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You know it makes sense.
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Wroclaw airport last weekend, me and little me, 30 mins to get photos and fingerprints, we were at the front of a queue of 80+ people. They took his photo which was a challenge as he was shorter than the camera could move down to(5 years old), ended up standing on a box.
Leaving was no issue for me but for his passport the lady was making phone calls and calling colleagues for advice etc, almost missed the flight
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Venice had 30 ees gates open. No hassle, couple of minutes.
those already on system told to go straight to passport control, but people who had registered elsewhere had to do it again.
Passport control 15 minutes, but ours was the only flight arrived.
Seems all the entry points not yet linked up.
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Poster: A snowHead
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We’ve been 90 minutes and counting in the queue at Geneva right now…
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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No EES or finger printing taking place when I went through Geneva a couple of hours ago. Took about 30min - sounds like the queue built up very shortly after I was through
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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At Geneva stood on the shuttle bus having just got off the plane.
We are in a long queue of transfer buses that haven't yet even set off for the terminal.
90 mins and still waiting.....
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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2 hours in the end. And correct: no EES in use it turned out. Fewer than half of the booths were manned….
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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So this is my first visit to the Schengen area for a few years. What has changed on the way out? I’m reading of delays exiting Geneva -is their anything EES to do on departure and will it matter if we didn’t do it going in?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Verona today . Person Already registered (in Poland) had to do whole thing again, but it only took 10 minutes.
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Bit of a thread drift, so apologies in advance, we are at Zurich waiting for our flight home. Now we are being told to go to the special desk at the gate to get a blue stamp on our boarding pass to allow us on the plane. What's that all about then?
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Why is Geneva such a basketball case? There's no good reason to have people queuing for so long. Frankly it's an utter disgrace.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Nothing at Eurotunnel Folkestone today. Place was deserted.
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Three of us landed at Geneva. One Irish passport straight through but board bag nightmare for an hour.
UK pass port took two hours and there wasn’t even EES at the end. So no clue why.
I arrived at a different terminal and made it through passport control in 5
Mins. Bags in 10.
The delayed chap made our 5 o’clock transfer with seconds to spare.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| JDL65 wrote: |
| Why is Geneva such a basketball case? There's no good reason to have people queuing for so long. Frankly it's an utter disgrace. |
When we went through, in addition to the normal staff in red fleeces, there were a couple of smartly dressed (suits), slightly flustered looking people who had the air of senior mgmnt about them. They were walking all around, talking to the staff, looking at what was going on, and on the phone a lot. My wild speculation is that GVA has realised that it has a problem - this new centralised passport control isn't up to the demands being placed on it.
It's definitely another vote in favour of driving for my Easter trip.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Is the main terminal Geneva any better than the budget airline/charter flights shed?
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| TommyJ wrote: |
| Is the main terminal Geneva any better than the budget airline/charter flights shed? |
On the way back you'll check in at T2 but be bussed back into T1 which actually has facilities but the queue for Gate C passport control looked awful 2 weeks ago but hopefully you might get gate D which was a breeze
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You know it makes sense.
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@snowdave, what time were you there on Friday? We landed from Manchester 16:30 and were in the queue by 16:45 which looked fairly long but ees all switched off and took us 30 mins by whiz time the bags were all delivered!
Traffic leaving gva and thru the French border was awful!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@kitenski, landed 15:20, in queue 15:30, out the other side 16:30 so we just missed you. The queue sped up a lot after 30 mins which might have been them turning the machines off. They were back on by 19:30 when my mate arrived.
Traffic awful for us as well. 2h30 to Chamonix- longest it’s ever taken me. Fingers crossed the journey home tomorrow is easier.
Skiing good though!
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Poster: A snowHead
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How long to get through Geneva airport on a Saturday, due to land about 2 pm (if on time), I booked a super saver train ticket that would give me 1 hour 15 minutes to get through, but looking at this thread it might make sense to get another super saver as the train ticket would cost chf 21 more on the day.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Today’s Geneva arrivals passport queue is similar length to Fridays hour-long epic.
Departures queue for C gates was long but quick, 10 mins from start (at the passports end of the travelator) to end.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We land in GVA 1830 on Saturday with 3 x 7 year old boys, 1 x 6 year old boy fresh from a 6 hour flight.
I thought I'd google what a fast track costs.
600 USD per person and they count everyone over 2 years old as an adult.
Not normally a screen time parent but I'll be making an exception in that queue.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| afterski wrote: |
600 USD per person and they count everyone over 2 years old as an adult. |
And you wonder why Switzerland is so well off.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| afterski wrote: |
We land in GVA 1830 on Saturday with 3 x 7 year old boys, 1 x 6 year old boy fresh from a 6 hour flight.
I thought I'd google what a fast track costs.
600 USD per person and they count everyone over 2 years old as an adult.
Not normally a screen time parent but I'll be making an exception in that queue. |
Unless it's changed in the last year, it doesn't actually save you any time for that $600. It just gets you a person to stand next to you in the queue and hold your bags.
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The website says you get to go down a special tunnel away from the proles.
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I landed in Geneva 18th January and left 25th January. Mid-morning arrivals and departures.
2x Adults and 1x 2 year old with UK passports.
On both occasions there was no EES, just inspection of passports and stamps as per normal. There was no significant delay at passport control - 5-10 mins at most in queue.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Mentioned before but thought might help some to mention again for February half termers at the tunnel. According to the shuttle bot EES will not be operating the weekend on the 13th February. Hopefully accurate and makes for a slightly less stressful crossing.
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| afterski wrote: |
| The website says you get to go down a special tunnel away from the proles. |
Interesting - looks like a big upgrade on the old proposition. Unfortunately as you say, with a price to match! I wonder if they're using the private jet terminal instead.
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