Departing VCE flying BA to LHR. UK Passport holder, but Italian residency card means I must not enrol in EES as the limits do not apply to me.

The UK passport holders that could register for EES had it easy from what I could see, plenty of machines to register on and also plenty of EES egates. There was no queue for these at any point that I was waiting (about 40 minutes).

I was told I had to use the manual ‘all passports’ line, which had a big queue moving slowing. I couldn’t go to the manual EU line which effectively skips the queue to the desks as processing me is quick. Passport scan, check of residency card, then they tap something into the computer (presumably to indicate my exemption of EES) and off I go. But I have to wait behind all the people from countries Italy don’t allow to use the egates and they all need photos and fingerprints so it was slow. Despite me arriving at the passport line 90 minutes before departure, boarding was almost complete when I got through, mainly because those flying on TK, QR and EK which all departed later than BA had decided to turn up super early.

There’s not many facilities after passport control due to the set up of the airport that’s typical of many smaller airports in the Schengen zone.

it seems odd that in the many years of planning of EES they’ve provided a system that makes it a total pain for legal residents when it should make the process simpler.

TL;DR for VCE
UK citizen (or other country that can use egates) using EES - fine, process seemed quick
Citizen for country not able to use egates - slow manual process, although they had most windows open
Residents of Italy from non-EU countries - expect to be stuck in the long slow queue with the others who can’t use egates