On Monday, travelers at several airports, including Paris Aéroports (Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly), experienced longer waiting times due to a national outage that lasted for three hours. The outage affected the computer system used by the Border Police, causing delays in the Parafe airlocks upon departure and arrival at the airports. These airlocks enable automated screening of travelers entering and exiting the Schengen Area, leading to increased waiting times at departures and arrivals.
The Parafe system is used in several French airports, as well as train stations and the port of Calais. The outage was national but only Paris Aéroport communicated about it. Meanwhile, 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. Hundreds of people found themselves waiting in line at border control, causing inconvenience for many.
The situation was further complicated by confusion caused by only certain airports communicating about the situation while others did not. Despite the inconvenience, travelers were assured that the situation would return to normal as soon as possible.