New EU border system causes airport chaos // Fuel taxes can drop further but no food relief // President pressures government to speed up storm help
Portuguese news in English on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
New EU border system causes airport chaos
The reintroduction of enhanced biometric screening at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado International Airport has been causing chaos for passengers leaving the Schengen zone, Público reports. Lines at some points reached the area with shops and restaurants in terminal one. Brazilian João Quintino de Almeida said he had to wait in a queue of about two hours to pass through security before another one taking three hours. He said people with European passports were able to skip the long queues. Several passengers slammed the airport for incompetence. Airport operator ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal told Público some passengers missed their flights due to the delays. A spokesperson said eight people missed a flight to Guarulhos in Brazil, which airline Latam said left 52 minutes late due to the long queues.
The new European Entry/Exit System, which involves collecting fingerprints for non-EU passengers leaving or entering the Schengen zone, was suspended multiple times over the weekend due to the delays, Lusa reports. The Public Security Police (PSP), which took over border security responsibility when SEF was disbanded, said it was suspended during parts of Saturday and Sunday at Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports. Spokesperson Sérgio Soares said a large number of people were leaving the passport-free travel zone from those airports and the police force was doing all it could to keep waiting times reasonable and avoid travellers missing flights. He said security control was being carried out safely and normally but without collecting biometric data. The situation in the arrivals zone was calmer across the weekend than the departures. The EES has been phased in since October and is supposed to be fully in place as of Friday just gone. Portugal wasn’t the only place to struggle; UK passengers were first to spend thousands of pounds to get home after missing their flight to Manchester from Milan’s Linate airport on Sunday, the BBC reports, in English.
My partner (and editor) Daniela Sunde-Brown flew out of Lisbon on Friday, April 10, and said in the non-EU queue Australian, Canadian, UK, USA and possibly some other passports with chips were being pushed through the standard electronic gates when she departed. Other non-EU passports such as Brazilian were being channelled through the new EES gates with fingerprints.
