Malfunctioning Airport Control Gates Cause Delays and Longer Waiting Times

On Monday, travelers experienced longer waiting times at the border crossing in several airports, including Paris Aéroports (Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly), due to a national outage. The outage lasted for three hours before returning to normal around 3 a.m., as reported by Paris Aéroports.

The computer system used by the Border Police experienced a breakdown, affecting the Parafe airlocks upon departure and arrival at the airports. These airlocks enable automated screening of travelers entering and exiting the Schengen Area, and the outage was expected to lead to increased waiting times at departures and arrivals.

Travelers were advised to postpone their flights by the general directorate of civil aviation due to disrupted air traffic caused by a national social movement, with cancellations and delays expected throughout the day.

The Parafe system, which allows border crossing formalities to be carried out in an automated, fluid, and rapid manner, is used in several French airports, as well as train stations and the port of Calais. However, only Paris Aéroport communicated about the outage while other affected airports did not notify travelers about it. This caused confusion and frustration for many travelers who found themselves waiting in line at border control for an estimated average of 40 minutes per hour.

Despite these inconveniences, travelers were assured that the situation would return to normal as soon as possible once the airport systems were restored. While some airports were affected by both disrupted traffic and longer waiting times at border control than others, overall it was a challenging day for those who had planned on traveling on Monday morning or evening.