Having recorded my fingerprints and passport scan outbound at Stansted last month my return from Sicily didn't test the system as their machines weren't working yet. This weekend just gone I was outbound for Spain. Leaving Stansted all worked fine but on arrival at Malaga the machine refused to read my passport and directed me to register for the new system (which I'd done a fortnight before) but of course there were no machines to register anywhere in sight. (There were a few nearby but all inop). Checked through manually - lots of other people having same problem. On departure tried again, scan not recognised and directed to register. This time there wwere machines nearby to do this so both of us repeated the registration process. Having done so returned to the e-gate where --- guess what --- document not recognised, go and register!!
And this on top of a spurious e-mail from Ryanair saying "Due to system upgrades at Malaga Airport, extended queues at passport control are expected. We advise customers due to depart from Malaga Airport to please arrive at the airport at least 3 hours ahead of your scheduled departure time and to proceed after bag drop to security and passport control. We advise you to not spend time in the retail areas to avoid missing your flight."
Well, 3 hrs before departure our flight wasn't even on the screens. In any case info about which departure section (A,B,C or D) isn't shown until boarding gate is shown about eta- 1hr. So how the digamma can you go thru passport control if you can't even tell which section to enter?
Plus, (having figured that there was only one section that handled non-Schengen European departures) we found there were only two or three flights leaving from there that afternoon and not a soul to be seen waiting at (manual) passport control - so where the fcuk is this 3 hr delay coming from then?
What a ridiculous mess.