Most of the conversation about Málaga airport focuses on arriving. Getting through, finding the car hire desk, and surviving the taxi queue on the N-340 toward Marbella.

Nobody talks about leaving.

Passengers flying out of Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP) holding non-EU passports have recently reported waiting three hours or more at exit passport control. Not entering Spain. Leaving it.

We've heard reports of as few as three officers processing the entire non-EU departure queue between 1 pm and 5 pm. Three people, checking every British, American, and other non-EU passport, one at a time, while departure boards tick over.

Since January 9, Spain has been implementing a phased rollout of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES). It captures fingerprints and facial images from non-EU travelers. The biometric capture rate has risen from 10% to 35% of eligible passengers since that date. (Confirmed February 2026)

The technology is not the problem. The staffing is.

Málaga airport currently processes roughly 450 passport checks per hour. During peak travel hours, more than 1,200 passengers arrive in a single hour. The maths doesn't work before you add biometric scanning. With it, border checks are taking up to 70% longer at airports across Spain, according to ACI Europe.

Self-service kiosks, intended to absorb overflow, have been plagued by malfunctions and configuration problems since rollout began. When they go down, the queue reverts to the manned booths. All three of them.

Here is what three hours in a passport queue means in practice: your flight boards, closes, and leaves.

We've heard accounts of passengers missing their departures because the line moved more slowly than the departure board indicated. Some airlines reportedly sent staff into the queue to pull passengers from flights about to close boarding. Not all airlines. Not consistently. If your carrier didn't send someone, you stood and watched.

The assumption that "passport control takes 10 minutes" no longer holds at Málaga on a busy afternoon.

Full EES implementation is scheduled for April 9, 2026. After that date, every non-EU passport holder, on every departure and arrival, gets biometric processing. Fingerprints. Facial scan. Digital record. No more stamps. (Confirmed February 2026)

The EU Commission has since granted flexibility: member states have until September 2026 to reach full compliance. Spain can temporarily ease or pause checks during peak periods to manage congestion. But the direction is set. The casual wave-through is ending.

CEHAT, Spain's hotel and tourism federation, has urged the Interior Ministry to increase police staffing at airports. The airlines and Airports Council International are lobbying for a further delay to October. Neither has produced results yet.

If you hold a non-EU passport, such as a UK, US, Canadian, Australian, or any other non-Schengen nationality, this affects every flight you take out of Málaga. Not just summer. Not just holidays. Every departure.

Before April 9:

After April 9:

For anyone who flies frequently for work, the calculus changes. An afternoon Madrid shuttle that used to mean arriving at AGP 90 minutes before departure now needs a three-hour buffer. A Friday evening flight to London Heathrow needs the same.

Málaga airport handled 10.4 million seats in winter 2025-26 alone, up 6.1% year on year. LOT launched in Warsaw. Ryanair added Stockholm and Bratislava. The terminal expansion plan, DORA III, won't break ground until 2029 at the earliest. Construction would take five years. (Confirmed January 2026)

The terminal was built for different volumes. It is staffed for pre-biometric processing. It runs a system designed before Spain became one of Europe's top remote-work destinations. The DORA III expansion carries an estimated €1.8 billion price tag. It hasn't started.

You've seen this pattern elsewhere on the Costa. Professional rules, amateur infrastructure. Digital requirements, analog capacity. The airport is catching up to the regulations faster than the building is catching up to the passengers.

At passport control, if you need to ask which queue is yours:

"¿Cuál es la fila para pasaportes no comunitarios?" — Which is the queue for non-EU passports?

And if you're running late:

"Mi vuelo sale en treinta minutos." — My flight leaves in thirty minutes.

No guarantees on the response. But they'll know you're paying attention.

Three officers are processing every non-EU departure at Spain's fourth-busiest airport. Biometric scanning is rolling out, but kiosks are crashing, and a terminal expansion is five years away. The system cannot handle the rules it already has, and April 9 adds fingerprints to the queue.

Arrive early. Fly morning when you can. Stop assuming passport control is the easy part.

Onwards — A and The WaypointSur team (passports in hand, kiosk rebooting)