How long should it take to get through passport control at an airport?
Two minutes? Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? Or an hour and a half?
Elsemarie Jensen had to wait a long time along with her husband, children, and grandchildren when they landed at Copenhagen Airport just after midnight last week after a holiday in Turkey.
- Suddenly we just couldn't move forward. So there we stood. There were a lot of people in front of us, and even more were coming behind us, so the queue kept growing and growing.
Elsemarie Jensen says they couldn't see far enough ahead to figure out why they were stopped. So they started wondering.
Elsemarie Jensen and her family had their patience tested after a holiday in Turkey.
- No one tells us anything, so we stand there talking about whether it could be drones over the airport or something else that has caused them to close off areas.
Time passed, the queue grew, and frustrations spread. Elsemarie Jensen felt that the atmosphere actually became a bit aggressive because several people tried to cut in line.
- We were just so tired. It takes a few hours to fly from Turkey, and we just wanted to go home to bed, so the irritation grew.
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'Frustrating'
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Sheena Oliver from Scotland has also had her patience tested at Copenhagen Airport. She landed on Thursday this week and had to go through passport control because she crossed a Schengen border.
- We were almost standing still in the queue for the digital passport control. It was very frustrating standing there waiting.
She says it took more than an hour and a half to get through.
- After more than an hour of waiting in line, more checkpoints were opened. But it all seemed a bit random.
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Many people and new rules
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There are always more people at the airport during the summer period, so some queueing is to be expected. But the queues have been extraordinary in recent months due to new EU legislation. ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/lange-koeer-i-koebenhavns-lufthavn-politi-sender-endnu-mere-mandskab )
Earlier this year, the airport got a new passport control system for those traveling in and out of Schengen countries. The EU has decided that they must now be registered digitally with photo and fingerprints to increase border security. But it is more time-consuming than a simple stamp in the passport, the system has been troublesome, and the queues are often longer than before.
On July 4, Copenhagen Police deployed more staff to passport control. But there can still be long waiting times, as the examples of Elsemarie Jensen and Sheena Oliver from the past week show.
Police inspector at Copenhagen Police, Anders Rath, says he understands the travelers' frustration.
- We cannot avoid that as a traveler you will experience waiting time. I guarantee that we are doing our best, and that is also why we have massively strengthened the border area with more resources.
Additionally, Copenhagen Police has announced that they will look into more initiatives after the summer holidays to reduce waiting times.
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The Schengen Cooperation
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All EU countries, except Ireland and Cyprus, are part of the Schengen cooperation.
In addition, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein are also members.
The cooperation allows for free travel between member countries without passport control.
When traveling in and out of Schengen, e.g., to Turkey, the United Kingdom, or the USA, you must go through passport control.
At Copenhagen Airport, Chief Operating Officer Kristoffer Plenge-Brandt says that airport staff try to help passengers choose the right queue so they can get through as quickly as possible. But he also stresses that queues will form when it is busy.
- We are always sorry when a passenger has a bad experience at Copenhagen Airport. We try to ensure that does not happen.
For Elsemarie Jensen and her family, the wait at passport control ended up lasting an hour and a half. She is not sure that their next holiday will be by plane.
- It really shouldn't be a problem to get people off a plane and home. My husband says he simply can't be bothered with the airport anymore, and that we should take the car instead for this, she says.
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