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.
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 situation while others did not. At the same time, air traffic was disrupted due to a national social movement, with cancellations and delays expected throughout the day.
Travelers were advised to postpone their flights by the general directorate of civil aviation. The waiting time at border control was estimated to be an average of 40 minutes for an hour, and travelers in queue were apologized to by Paris Aéroports. Throughout the day, hundreds of people found themselves waiting in line at border control, causing inconvenience for many.
The confusion and frustration caused by only certain airports communicating about the situation led many travelers to feel uncertain about their plans. Despite this inconvenience, travelers were assured that the situation would return to normal as soon as possible.