The passport control system at César Manrique Airport in Lanzarote suffered a failure this Monday morning and affected dozens of passengers bound for destinations outside the European Union who were unable to catch their flight to leave the island.
This automated system allows the registration of the entry of travelers from outside the EU or of Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian, or Swiss nationality, who remain in member territories for up to 90 days. Among its objectives is to prevent people from overstaying their stay, using false identities, or misusing their visas. It also aims to streamline controls, although it has registered several incidents so far.
According to what La Voz has been able to learn, a Ryanair airline flight between Lanzarote and Edinburgh left nearly 70 passengers on the ground due to a collapse in the control system. Around 11:00 AM, the island airport had already seen part of its operations affected by this incident.
Sources from the National Police have confirmed to this outlet that it is a system failure of passport control. Other sources have added that it is a disconnection problem that affects all of Europe, which has caused the system to slow down in all airports. The failures are recurrent, although the system had already been recovered by midday.
Ryanair asks to paralyze the system during the summer
This situation occurs a few days after the airline Ryanair has asked the Government of Spain to suspend until after the summer the residence and exit system (EES) which is responsible for controlling the passports of travelers from territories outside the European Union.
Ryanair has urged the Government of Spain and the other 28 countries that have this system in place to halt this measure. At the same time, it has indicated that Lanzarote Airport, along with those of Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Reus, Málaga and Alicante, already accumulate "waiting times that exceed between one and two hours". The airline has recognized that on occasion there are passengers who have missed flights for this reason.
The low-cost company, which has starred in a constant dispute with the Spanish Government after being sanctioned for "abusive practices", has assured that the Spanish authorities "have not managed to guarantee adequate staffing". While it has praised Greece's stance, which suspended this control to "be able to manage queues during the peak of the summer season".
