Nothing quite compares to munching a fresh-out-of-the-oven pastel de nata while strolling along the River Tagus, with views of Lisbon’s pastel-tinted, castle-studded skyline in the distance… but if your heart is set on Portugal this summer, you should brace yourself for some serious border hiccups.
Europe’s new Entry/Exit System is now operating in full swing, and unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few months, Americans are now expected to be fingerprinted and undergo facial scans upon arriving in much of the Old Continent.
Or most of it, anyway.
As a result, significant delays have been reported across EU entry hubs such as Paris Charles de Gaulle, Milan Malpensa, and Madrid Barajas… but in Portugal’s case, Lisbon Airport really does take the cake for disruption.
Lisbon Airport Is Probably The Last Place You Want To Be Right Now
Lisbon Airport has never been Europe's posterchild for effective, smooth airside operations, with border delays being reported long before EES, but this week it came under fire, again, following a viral reel shared by CNN journalist Clarissa Ward.
As she states in the video, non-European passengers, and this includes U.S. passport holders, are now required to register their biometric information in an EES kiosk ahead of proceeding to the actual border control, both upon arriving and leaving Portugal.
The problem is that, depending on the ‘results' from that machine, you either get into another long line or go to yet another kiosk.
In practice, travelers must now use the kiosk to ‘check in' to the Schengen Area, the border-free zone that Portugal shares with 26 other European countries, and to ‘check out' when leaving. This ensures their stay does not exceed the allowed 90 days within any 180-day period and prevents overstayers.
Sounds good on paper, but the situation on the ground is nothing short of absolute chaos.
Ward revealed she had to wait a whopping six hours just to clear procedures before being allowed to board her flight out of the country. In her own words, ‘thousands and thousands of people' are going through ‘complete insanity', and the system just ‘doesn't work'.
In the last two weeks, Portuguese authorities ramped up efforts to smooth out the EES shambles in Lisbon Airport, including deploying the National Guard, yet this has been to no avail. Ward concluded by saying this is a ‘testimony to just what a disaster these new EES rules are'.
Before you fly out to Europe this summer, check the Entry Requirements that apply at your destination here.
Expect Some Major Disruption Traveling To Portugal This Summer
Every single EES registration takes about 30 to 60 seconds to complete, which doesn't sound like an awful-long wait if we're talking the experience of individual travelers.
That is, if the EES kiosk even works, in the first place. There have been reports of faulty registrations which lead to even longer waiting.
Add in the typical peak-hour hordes, and you can easily get 3 to 6 hour wait times.
That's the average European airport. In Lisbon, wait times can exceed 8 hours on particularly busy days, with queues snaking out of the actual passport control zone, through the entire duty-free and security area, and out into the public zone.
Don't believe us? Type ‘Lisbon Airport' on TikTok and happy doomscrolling.
On top of that, Lisbon Airport has historically been operating over capacity, especially with how popular the city has become as a destination in the last few years.
It was originally designed for far fewer passengers than it now hosts, and with tens of millions of visitors a year, border control inevitably gets overwhelming:
- There just aren't enough border officers on peak days
- Limited passport control booths
- Even if you're eligible for eGate usage, they're not always fully usable, and the system routinely glitches
Border hiccups aside, check the latest alerts on the Traveler Dashboard that apply to Portugal ahead of flying.
For instance, on June 3, 2026, a nationwide strike caused widespread disruption to airports, rail, metro, bus, hospitals, and schools. Travelers were advised to confirm their flight status, allow extra time to travel, and prepare for reduced public services on that particular date.
As far as traveler perception goes, Lisbon in particular is one of the safest destinations in Western Europe, scoring 82 out of 100 on the Traveler Safety Index:
Will The EES Be Suspended?
The National Guard has already been brought in, but seeing complaints have now spiraled out of control, Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro even hinted at the temporary suspension of the EES measures for the time being.
Something fellow EES-affected country Greece attempted in order to make arrivals feel more seamless, until Brussels reigned things back in line.
At this point, pretty much everyone's unhappy, from tourism leaders, to Algarve hoteliers in the south of the country, to even the Portuguese PM, who's ‘considering taking more serious action‘ to safeguard Portugal's reputation.
He stressed he acknowledges Portugal has obligations under European law, but insisted the government simply cannot sit and watch as the situation deteriorates and damages tourism (and the wider economy). That's 12% of the country's GDP at stake.
This July, an additional 360 members of the PSP (Public Security Police) will be added to Portuguese airports, like Lisbon, Porto, and Faro (which serves the Algarve), but even that's not a guarantee Portugal will improve the traveler experience in time for the summer rush.
Hélder Martins, President of the Algarve Hoteliers' Association, was quoted as saying, ‘there are still queues even when the system is offline'.
The Algarve now hosts nonstop flights from North America, and it's one of the more rapidly growing destinations for U.S. travelers vacationing across the pond.
In short, for the time being:
- Avoid using Lisbon Airport for connecting flights
- If you do, ensure there is at least 6-8 hours of buffer time in between flights
- When arriving in Lisbon during this summer's EES rollout, prepare for significant delays
- Take out travel insurance before flying to account for any disruption, such as missed flights, in a worst-case scenario
