In April 2026, just a few days after the Entry/Exit System went live, I travelled to Palma de Mallorca with my hubby.

We were due to land at 11am and had plans to meet friends at 12:15, so after hearing all the stories about 3–4 hour delays, I’ll be honest—I was quite anxious about timings.

✈️ Arrival & first impressions

Our Jet2 flight actually landed about 20 minutes early. We only had cabin luggage, so we were quickly through the terminal and heading towards the dreaded passport control.

But straight away—things looked better than expected.

There were plenty of staff around, guiding everyone to the kiosks, and lots of machines available.

🖥️ Using the kiosks

My husband went to a kiosk just behind me and was finished in no time.

I scanned my passport (very similar to the e-passport gates back in the UK), then the camera took my photo.

Next step: fingerprints.

I placed four fingers on the screen…
Not accepted.

Tried again… still not accepted.
After a few attempts, a member of staff came over and helped—but it still wouldn’t work.

At this point, I’ll admit, I started to panic a bit (not unusual for me these days!).

👮 Manual passport control

I was then directed to a manned desk.

It was straight over—no long queue—and although there were still a few issues with my fingerprints, it was eventually accepted and I was allowed through.

⏱️ Total time

From start to finish, it probably took around 10 minutes.

We were through, out, and meeting our friends by about 11:15am—which was far better than I’d expected.

🤔 Final thoughts

It might have been the time of year, or just that it wasn’t particularly busy—but for us, there were no long delays at all.

Definitely not the 3–4 hours I’d been worried about.

💬 Over to you

Have you travelled through the new system yet?
I’d love to hear your experience—feel free to let me know and I’ll share your thoughts too.