My sister arrived in Alicante last night, no booths and only one border guard who looked bored stamping passports.

Same for me at Málaga last week. The airport was quiet (landed at 8.25 pm) and I was seated in Row 2 so one of the first off the plane, there was no queue at all at Border Control and they weren't using the EES machines. But there will come a time (no later than next April) when the machines will be used for all flights and any UK passport holders with TIEs still clinging to the notion that they will be able to stroll past the machines will be sadly disappointed.

I flew in once (pre UK ETA introduction) with my daughter travelling on her other passport, and we went to the manual desk simply because her UK passport had expired. The guy was perfectly fine with that but he did want to see the other passport that she used to take the flight to the UK.

Friday at Malaga airport was not great. We got there around 9am checked board for departure board our flights would not be announced for 45 mins so we got a coffee no large queue. By the time we finished our coffee queue was developing . I checked and it was nearly back to duty free. So we decided join the queue and check for departure gate while passing info board in the queue. After about 45 mins we were about halfway to departure gate and the queue had doubled back on itself and the end of it was where we were and getting longer. We made it through passport control eventually after about one and a half hours queuing. The new registration machines were lit up green but people said they were not working? Ma9n problem seemed to be no staff controlling the queue until literally at passport control. So people who were eu citizens were queueing until they were separated near passport control. A couple of staff further along queue could have resolved it by separating eu and non eu earlier. I was surprised how quickly the queue went from no problem to huge so quickly

I only know the Schengen side of Malaga airport - is there nothing (eateries, bars?) there once you pass through passport control?

Yes there are some snack type places after passport control.

We came back from UK to Málaga late last night. The machines were not being used there were 4 or 5 immigration booths open I would guess it took us around half an hour to get through. To be honest the main problem seemed to be that the main queue sort of entered the booth area and then people were expected to simply split away and queue at the various booths. Many people simply queued at the two central booths rather than dispersing to form queues at the booths with less people, all booths clearly stated all passports and people were trying to say go to the other booths where there is spaces but such requests were ignored. As I say it was late around 10:30 and the airport was far from busy, it was certainly a better experience than when we flew out from Málaga to UK.

This is a comment on a thread on the Portugal forum but it's not really appropriate for further discussion on that thread.

This puzzles me a bit. I wasn't aware that on leaving a UK airport, the passport check would include a Schengen stamps check and totting-up. I can't actually remember whether we go through passport control on exiting the UK and I can't imagine the staff at the boarding gate doing anything other than a passport validity and id check.

If it's true that they're doing a Schengen counter check via passport stamps anywhere at the departure end, though, how will they manage when the new electronic system, to which they presumably won't have access in the UK or anywhere else outside Schengen, comes into operation?

You are puzzled, as you are not up to date about EES implementation. All info is on EES website.

ALL airline carriers will have terminal access to EES system (even outside EU) and will query passenger status on EES at departure gate. If terminal response is NO, boarding denied.

Surely the decision to deny travel was based SOLELY on the date of the return ticket, no? Because with the 90-day window being on a rolling basis, every day spent outside the EU will clear a day from that 90-day limit.

Btw, did this happen during check-in at the desk or during boarding?

Hmmmm, I should have looked there first, I suppose.

I'm not usually such a slacker.

However, having done so now, I'm still not sure that the airlines etc are going to have to be checking the day count as I can't find any reference to that. Looks like all they're required to do is check the travel authorisation and, in the case of the traveller holding a double-entry visa, take account of any entries already effected. Plus check whether the individual has previously been refused entry.

I can't find anything that says visa-exempt travellers will be checked at departure to ensure they have sufficient days available for their proposed stay (which may, in any case, be of indeterminate length). Can you?

Here's the FAQ for carriers.

Everything until now led me to believe that currently carriers check passport and visa validity before boarding and the border control agent has final say over Schengen days left, return ticket, stay, and money.

Also ETIAS is used to deny entry to visa-exempt passengers before boarding, not EES, and ETIAS isn't running yet.

If carriers are obliged to check at UK departures, does that mean EU residence permits will need to be shown each time you fly back from the UK in order to show exemption?

Also, as EU resident permit holders are still subject to the 90/180 rule, will there be a parallel system to keep a day-count for such permit holders?

Haven't seen any mention of either anywhere.

The latter would be impossible in any case, since you could depart and return from your country of residence, spending time in the Schengen zone and without crossing any external frontiers

Still waiting for Mr Flag to get back with the relevant citations, should there be any.

Yes, it is difficult to understand how the 90/180 day rule could be enforced for EU residents.
I can see a more troubling situation though.
How is the system going to cope with an EU resident that travels back to their country of residence via another Schengen country?
For example, a UK citizen resident in Spain spends a few days in France on the way back to Spain.
What type of registration is going to happen when they enter France?
They are registered as entering the Schengen area, but the crossing from France to Spain is not registered. The system thinks they are still in the Schengen area, and keeps on increasing the day count.
Is there not going to be a problem the next time they enter/leave the Schengen area?