Originally Posted by
NDFan
As a point of reference, I went through T4S exit immigration twice in the past two days.
On Jul 23 I went through at at 12.40 and there was no queue at all for non-EU passports.
On Jul 24 I went through at 11.15 and the snake lines for non-EU were full almost back to the top of the escalators. However the line kept moving as all the booths were manned so it took just over ten minutes.
This is because there is a large number of transatlantic flights leaving around 13.00 so 11.00 to 11.30 is prime time for departing passengers clearing immigration.
Anybody passing through at around 12.40 will likely miss their flight (as I did due to late inbound flight from VLC).
I also noticed that they have recently installed a long row of about 20 e-gates just in front of the non-EU booths. Looks like they will be using these in the near future?
This may be due to the introduction of the entry/exit system later this year and the ETIAS later on 2025. Biometrics will be collected on first entry and I guess they will allow the use of the e-gates on the subsequent entries.
https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/po...exit-system_en
https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en