Lisbon Airport E-Gate Glitch Triggers 3-Hour Queues: How to Skip Them

Long-haul holidaymakers landing in Lisbon this week ran into an unexpected hurdle: three-hour lines at passport control after a software failure knocked the automated border gates offline. For residents in Portugal—or anyone about to fly home for Christmas—here is what went wrong, what is being done, and how to dodge the worst of the queues.

Snapshot of the disruption

• 3-hour delays reported at peak on Tuesday afternoon

• All e-gates taken out of service for nearly 5 hours

• Manual inspection desks opened, but staffing was stretched

• Affected terminals: T1 arrivals Schengen & non-Schengen

What happened inside Humberto Delgado Airport

The glitch struck the border-control network shortly after 11:00, paralysing the SEF-successor agency AIMA’s biometric system that scans passports against EU watchlists. While technicians rebooted servers housed in a basement data room, officers reverted to pen-and-stamp checks. That emergency switch added roughly 90 seconds per traveller, a tiny slice on paper that mushroomed as seven transatlantic flights touched down almost simultaneously.

Passengers caught in the logjam

Families arriving from Newark, São Paulo and Luanda described a “snake of humanity” stretching back to the duty-free zone. Cabin crews distributed water bottles in line, while airport staff escorted elderly passengers to a priority corridor improvised near Gate 15. Several connecting flyers missed onward TAP and Ryanair links despite a two-hour buffer.

Why the timing stings for Portugal

December is traditionally Humberto Delgado’s second-busiest month, buoyed by emigrants returning for the holidays and an uptick in city-break tourism. Lisbon’s main runway already operates near capacity during daylight slots; a prolonged frontier hold-up therefore risks back-propagating delays to apron operations, baggage belts and taxi queues beyond the terminal.

Official response and next steps

Airport operator ANA – Vinci confirmed that a corrupted patch in the Entry/Exit System—part of the EU’s forthcoming bloc-wide EES upgrade—triggered the crash. AIMA technicians have rolled back the software, and a permanent fix is slated for overnight installation once traffic eases. The Ministry of Infrastructure said it will double on-site border officers this weekend and keep a mobile server cluster on standby until New Year’s week.

Tips for travellers during the holiday rush

Arrive at least 3 hours ahead for long-haul departures; 2 hours for European hops.

Pre-register for ANA’s paid Fast Track lane if you hold an EU biometric passport.

Keep boarding passes on paper or offline; patchy cellular coverage inside T1 arrivals hampers QR code retrieval.

If you have tight connections, alert your airline at the gate. Some carriers issue ‘golden tickets’ to let mis-connected passengers bypass secondary screening.

The bigger picture: digital borders under strain

Portugal’s outage is a reminder that the continent-wide rollout of biometric exit-logging is complex. France and Germany suffered similar hiccups during summer trials, and industry analysts warn that each airport’s legacy IT stack poses unique risks. For Lisbon, ensuring redundancy is crucial: the city expects to greet 38 M passengers in 2026, a record that leaves little margin for prolonged system downtime.

For now, AIMA insists the worst is over. Still, anyone flying into the capital before New Year’s Eve would do well to pack patience—alongside the presents.