 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great news! Hopefully CDG T2E won't be a nightmare in 2 weeks.
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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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| ousekjarr wrote: |
It seems no-one commenting on this understands the concept and theory of launching a major change in a soft way, rather than a 1st January big bang approach which would be guaranteed to go wrong somewhere.
Starting with a small number of key locations and then requiring 1% of passengers to use it, then expanding to 5%, then in stages to 25% then expanding to more entry points, then upping the thresholds and the coverage is exactly the correct approach, and is exactly what they are doing and therefore what is being reported on here.
Calling this approach "shambolic" and suggesting they couldn't organise a wee wee up in a brewery just exposes your biases and lack of understanding.
There will be problems and sequencing issues along the way, but overall it has been pretty much as expected to date including the delays. Tell me in a year whether it has worked or not. |
Perhaps it would be wise to review this statement made on 4 January - it doesn't seem to have stood the test of time. Perhaps someone needs to look at his own biases.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It’s being reported on a few sites online but the official EES site still says April.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The EU initially wanted a "big bang" approach but then realised that it wouldn't work. Turns out that some other stuff doesn't work either but I assume that is to be expected where multiple suppliers are trying to make their kit work with other people's kit.
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| Dav wrote: |
| It’s being reported on a few sites online but the official EES site still says April. |
The announcement was reportedly only made on Friday, possibly in the afternoon and so the website hasn't been updated yet due to the weekend and 34 hour working weeks?
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| Dav wrote: |
| It’s being reported on a few sites online but the official EES site still says April. |
Maybe one of the bits that didn’t work 
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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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No sign of this tyrannical nonsense at Lyon Airport on Saturday afternoon other than 3 machines that were all switched off. Everyone in the same queue to get through. Hopefully the on going issues with this nonsense continues and eventually it gets scrapped.
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Went to Austria via Salzburg on the 24th January - there’s a separate building with the photo/fingerprint machines for EES which seemed to work well. A few people were referred to the manned booths where they did the same photo and fingerprints as the unmanned ones. There is a delay caused by having to take a bus from the plane and another bus from the EES building to the arrivals hall, maybe 15 minutes in total. The return yesterday was as normal - passports were stamped both ways.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It's not going to be scrapped. There is too much money and political capital invested in it to allow it to fail.
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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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Departing Geneva today on an afternoon flight for Gatwick. EES added perhaps a minute to the overall stamping process, comprising only being asked to fingerprint. Security was done in 10 minutes or less and Immigration took a similar time. The biggest delay was around boarding. Gatwick eGates were processing people faster than they were arriving. Overall, perhaps the fastest and smoothest 4 Valleys-to-Home trip I've done.
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Anyone done Verona on a Saturday morning recently? Due to arrive 9.25am.
Hoping that its early enough that we're not going to be waiting for hours
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You know it makes sense.
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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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@ousekjarr, thanks yes I did thatb serach and saw that and those comments; I was particularly interested in anyone who had been at Verona on a particular day and time which wasn't mentioned in any of them
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Poster: A snowHead
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Zurich Airport
Thursday 29 January 2026
Swiss Air flight from Heathrow
Arrived at passport control at 16:08
Processed at 16:19
Zurich Airport
Monday 02 February 2026
Swiss Air flight to Heathrow
Arrived at passport control at 13:15
Processed at 13:25
Heathrow Airport
Monday 02 February 2026
Swiss Air flight from Zurich
Arrived at passport control at 16:25
Processed at 16:28
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Any update on Eurotunnel Folkstone ?
Traveling Feb half Term (Friday 13th of all days) and expecting it to be busy anyway without this added complication
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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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| ah666 wrote: |
Any update on Eurotunnel Folkstone ?
Traveling Feb half Term (Friday 13th of all days) and expecting it to be busy anyway without this added complication |
There’s no EES at eurotunnel for the foreseeable future - they are still waiting for the French authorities to confirm a start date.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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24/1/25 Geneva arrival 1.40pm No EES machines in operation, time to get through customs 2.5 hours
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Echoing @ousekjarr --- Verona on 24th Jan ; 15 mins.
I was with Crystal ski, a few flights arriving more or else at the same time. Verona is a relatively quiet airport though
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| Quote: |
| UK travel industry leaders have called on the European Commission to tell all border authorities to stand down the new entry-exit system (EES) if needed, as fears increase of summer disruption. |
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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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Sorry but I can't see the shambles for the smell of BS in the air.
| Quote: |
Geneva always gets busy during winter as skiers, Brits among them, head for the slopes.
But the airport is blaming the new Entry-Exit System (EES) at border control for "congestion... particularly on Saturdays during the busy ski season".
A spokesperson said implementing EES had been a "major challenge for Swiss customs and Geneva Airport". |
Which all sounds very convincing...to anyone who'd never used Geneva BEFORE the introduction of EES. I've had to queue for over an hour to get through passport control at GVA pre-EES. I've also queued for over an hour at passport control post-EES - and back in Dec. the queue had feck all to do with EES and was down to the sometimes only 1 person they had manning the human desks stamping passports. Yes you had to queue for the EES machines - but only because the human desk queue was backed up to them and they were only letting people go to the machines as/when there was somewhere for them to go after the machines.
But yea, it's all down to EES isn't it GVA...
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The famous Swiss clock efficiency, not
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| robs1 wrote: |
| The famous Swiss clock efficiency, not |
No, Swiss French efficiency. Lots of people on here post stories of delays at Geneva, can't remember ever seeing one about delays at (Swiss German) Zurich.
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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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| Mjit wrote: |
Sorry but I can't see the shambles for the smell of BS in the air.
| Quote: |
Geneva always gets busy during winter as skiers, Brits among them, head for the slopes.
But the airport is blaming the new Entry-Exit System (EES) at border control for "congestion... particularly on Saturdays during the busy ski season".
A spokesperson said implementing EES had been a "major challenge for Swiss customs and Geneva Airport". |
Which all sounds very convincing...to anyone who'd never used Geneva BEFORE the introduction of EES. I've had to queue for over an hour to get through passport control at GVA pre-EES. I've also queued for over an hour at passport control post-EES - and back in Dec. the queue had feck all to do with EES and was down to the sometimes only 1 person they had manning the human desks stamping passports. Yes you had to queue for the EES machines - but only because the human desk queue was backed up to them and they were only letting people go to the machines as/when there was somewhere for them to go after the machines.
But yea, it's all down to EES isn't it GVA... |
So you've queued for an hour, but not 2 or 3 as some have had to recently, and it's the EU bod suggesting it could be a lot worse at some summer airports.
But of course doubling or tripling the queing time is nothing to do with the implementation of the EES.
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Incoming at Tenerife (TFS) this afternoon. Big queue for 36 EES registration machines but only about 12 were working. Took me 5-10 mins to register. First you have to accept that your personal information will be held. If you refuse then you just go back to the start again. Then you scan your passport - takes nearly a minute. Then your mugshot is taken. It doesn’t like glasses so had to remove them but it didn’t seem to mind my baseball cap. Another 1-2 mins. Then you place the four fingers of your right hand on the glass for fingerprint scanning. It gave up after two attempts and asked me to wait while some remote operator accepted them manually. They did look pretty trashed but a few swipes with some 40 grit might have had something to do with that.
After some thinking it was on to the separate e-gates which required more passport scanning and looking at a camera - glasses on this time. Then more thinking and whirring hourglass for nearly a minute and finally the doors open.
Then on to the manual passport stamp with one officer and no queue.
Must have taken 20-30 mins all together but at least our bags were already waiting for us in reclaim.
Edit: the queue for the first stage was so long that it started before any EU citizens could follow their own route - and that was on a Thursday afternoon out of season. Goodness knows what it’s going to be like when it gets busy.
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You know it makes sense.
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Took 6 days of attempts with the EU's TLS visa system to finally get an appointment at the Manchester Centre, the system is a complete shambles even after 8 years...enter all your details correctly and the computer says no.....,kicks you off, please try again, you're in the wrong country, ...the list goes on.....and the EU reckon they can get the EES system to work ? ..? No chance, airports are turning them off, they still have to stamp passports..... waste of EU money
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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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EES was a piece of cake for me in Venice. Queued for about 15 minutes, answered the questions in 2, another 5 queuing for the e-gates and through I go.
Still had to wait for luggage the other side. Return flights just went straight through the e-gates.
Yes still had to get a stamp, but that's maybe 5 seconds into the deal.
From what I saw the problems aren't the machines or the process, it's the gawping simpletons who don't know how a queue works and can't follow simple instructions
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Poster: A snowHead
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It would help if instead of requesting that you register on every visit to Shengen you registered on your first visit and then just went to the e-gates on subsequent visits.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, when people voted for Brexit ‘sovereignty’ such issues were posited as “a price worth paying” and predictions of downsides were “Project Fear”. So, if you’re a Brexit voter then you should just keep quiet and suck it up. If not, then lobby your MP to accelerate a return to a Single Market and greater integration with the only economic bloc that doesn’t want to invade or absorb us into its hegemony.
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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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It's almost 10 years since the Brexit referendum, so pretty pointless to tell anyone to just keep quiet and suck it up. (I voted remain btw).
The system clearly isn't working properly, particularly at busy airports, and isn't forecast to be working properly come the summer peak travel period. as I said above, if we think 2-3 hours at Geneva is bad, wait until the summer at other airports.
Geneva isn't bad because it's Swiss French rather than Swiss German, it's bad because it is the busiest alpine serving airport and the system isn't working properly.
As JohnE says, a simple improvement would be register once and then be able to use the e-gates, so long as there are sufficient egates availabe.
However, the system in the future appears to be to still have to go to these booths, and then pass through some sort of gate afterwards. That will cause delays as it is a 2 step process, not a simple process like using the egates.
I'm sure a lot of skiers are being put off flying into Geneva at the moment which can't be good for the airport owners, or the resorts it serves.
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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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@LaForet, Though most of what you say is correct I do not think that ECOWAS wants to invade or absorb us.
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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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Three trips to Geneva so far this ski season - no EES machines operational and minimal/no queues BUT these flights were midweek and early or late in the day. Family arrived early pm on Saturday 24/1 to face a huge queue. Again can't blame EES as machines weren't being used - can blame the fact that there were 5 or 6 planes arriving from the UK within about 30 minutes of each other and only a couple of border control desks open. Queue moved quickly once more staff arrived to handle the influx. We can all speculate why Geneva Airport seem unable to pre-empt this occurrence given they must know the schedule of arrivals from UK.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@JDL65, in my experience Genva passport control has always been bad in summer and winter. It doesn't need much of an increase in badness for the queues to shoot up from 30 to 40 minutes to hours.
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@JDL65, I don't know how it will work when I head back to a different part of Italy next month, but when I exited Venice airport that's exactly what happened. The e-gates checked my EES verification and allowed me through. I suspect if I returned to Venice I would be able to go straight to the passport control.
Geneva Airport is a lottery at the best of times. Security does seem to have improved and exiting is usually not too bad, but entry depends fully on timing of your arrival and how many other planes have landed. Especially if there's a 777 or A380 from the Middle East or something other non-Shengen area
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Hi - we're arriving in Geneva soon BUT flying from Malaga, Spain....normally within Europe/Schengen we don't go through passport control. Switzerland isn't part of the EU but it is Schengen Zone....does anyone know if we'll go through passport or not please - Google is struggling to give me straight answer.
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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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| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
@JDL65, I don't know how it will work when I head back to a different part of Italy next month, but when I exited Venice airport that's exactly what happened. The e-gates checked my EES verification and allowed me through. I suspect if I returned to Venice I would be able to go straight to the passport control.
Geneva Airport is a lottery at the best of times. Security does seem to have improved and exiting is usually not too bad, but entry depends fully on timing of your arrival and how many other planes have landed. Especially if there's a 777 or A380 from the Middle East or something other non-Shengen area |
Exiting the Schengen area isn't the issue.
Arriving into the Schengen area is the issue and where the problem lies. The system is supposed to ask you about your stay - it can ask where, how long and for confirmation you can fund yourself. Now that information will be different each time.
So unless they sack off that extra information and just use the biometric data once registered, the process will always be slow.
It seems that at the moment that extra information isn't being asked for in many cases but there are still big queues in certain airports, even on days when you wouldn't expect them.
So if the system is to collect all the info they state, each time, it will always be a 2 stage process, and therefore slow.
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Leaving Verona, all EES machines had bags over them, usual 10 minute queue for passport stamps. The desk I used stamped my passport (along with everyone else's) with tomorrow's date...
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FAQ
