When I Travel The World

Sounds terrible. Not something you want to have at an airport.

obduro

I assume Gold/Silver BAEC status members can use the business lines? Is it member +1 or can everyone on the booking get through that way (We have a booking of six and two status holders on the booking)

Temps

Good to know, off to BCN this weekend in a party of 10, son and I are routing through MAD so shouldn't be a problem for us but the other 8 will be warned.

Cris L

Last summer on a jaunt to BCN it took me about 2 hours to get through Passport Control. The queues were so horrendous that we could not even see the Passport Control cubicles!

I thought it was an exceptional event, as there was at least 3 widebodies that had landed just before us!

venomtrilogy

The worst part is that people barge through line because they are running late, and it leads to arguments with people who gave themselves plenty of time.

Last June I was flying out on a Sunday morning and they did not have a fast track lane open. It was chaos. The line stretched out past security and people were leapfrogging. A father and son whipped past everyone with the father yelling in French and English that they had 15 minutes to get to their gate. When they finally got to the front of the line (3 people ahead of me), it turned out that the son had lost his passport somewhere between check-in desk and passport control. The father berated him and then left him with the agent as collateral while he went looking for it. There is no way they made that flight. I was in that line for an hour.

MarkFlies

Wow, I went through BCN last week. One or two passengers ahead of me at immigration on arrival and no one in queue for immigration on departure! I must have got lucky.

No queue at priority security leaving BCN.

So a good experience at the airport for me

I did get caught out by a strike by taxi drivers - had to rent a car to get to airport

FlyerTalker6245

I flew through BCN at the weekend. Inbound the passport control was horrific if you were non-EU but I flashed through in seconds; and outbound there was no queue at passport check.
I guess I was lucky.

wyvern

I've been through around once a week all year, different days and never more than 5 min wait outbound (and never any wait for EU passports control inbound if you use the machines). Never any queues at fast track security either. It's a great airport and it would be a shame if the outbound passport queues get longer.

Will see how my flight is tomorrow...

Zephyrous

It took us more than an hour (close to 80 mins if memory serves right) to go through EU immigration when we were leaving on Easter Monday (only one immigration officer manning the EU immigration section).

Some time could have been shaved off if the security officers kept people in a queue (there was constant queue jumping) but assume it would have still been close to an hour. Non-EU queues seemed to move quicker when exiting BCN (weird as when we arrived the immigration queue for non-EU nationals seeking entry seemed to go on for miles).

Interestingly enough I kept hearing horror stories about immigration queues at ATH due to the change in regulations but it took me two minutes to go through it on Monday.

schrodingerdog

AFAIK there is no priority lines for inmigration in Spain.

The problems in BCN are a combination of
1) New EU regulation about scanning all EU passports / IDs for entry and exit
2) Spanish National Police being low in agents
3) Way too much people going to BCN from outside EU (and also from UK, that needs to clear inmigration as they are not Schengen)
4) BCN is a hot spot for inmigration / customs trouble, so police is always busy and can not put extra staff in the desks

obduro

Helpful to know. Thanks!

noubliepas

I was on a domestic flight from BCN yesterday but security was chaos as the queues from immigration were snaking back into the security check. Took over 45 mins to get through security and that was without any passport check.

MSPeconomist

So the solution is to create long lines for those exiting BCN, especially those using (generally cheap) coach tickets? Then these folks miss their flights and are forced to stay for at least one additional day.

Could the theory be that they'll be more likely to be outraged and remember the exit delay? If Barcelona wants them to tell their friends and family not to come to the city, maybe someone believes that this would be more effective than long lines to enter at BCN.

EvilDoctorK

Never had a problem with the evening flights ( around one a month for the last few months ) ... never anyone in the line really , no delays at all [ and on the inbound the non EU queue looks a bit painful sometimes, but the e-Gates for EU are usually fast ] .. I guess it might be more likely to be an issue in the mid morning when there's lots of North American flights going /?

BTW - Where is Fast Track security at BCN ? - I may not be looking hard enough but I have never noticed it [ I know in MAD it's kind of hidden around the side ]

MSPeconomist

I haven't departed BCN on a nonstop to the USA in a while, but IIRC the USA flights leave from a totally different and segregated area of the airport that cannot be accessed by anyone else. That area has separate lounges, etc. as well as separate security and passport control areas.