Sign error at Paris Charles de Gaulle wrongly listed Chinese travellers as eligible for automatic passport gates

A sign at a Paris airport mistranslated the rules for its automated border control lanes, listing Chinese citizens as eligible to use them. China is not among the countries whose nationals may use the gates. The Chinese version of the same sign also left out Swiss citizens, who are normally permitted to use them.

France, Germany and Spain each run automated border checks under their own names: PARAFE in France, Easypass in Germany and Sistema ABC in Spain. The procedure is broadly the same everywhere. Travellers place their passport on a reader, step into the gate and look into a camera. The system compares the data before the door opens.

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens are generally admitted. Each country decides which additional nationalities may use the system. Germany, after prior registration, adds the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. France admits citizens of 16 further states on entry, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel, usually also after prior registration. On exit, the French gates are open to all adults.

According to the report, none of them includes China on entry. Pascal Lottaz published a photograph of the sign on X, writing that someone needed to tell the Paris airport that China is not part of the Schengen area. The airport operator Paris Aéroport replied that it looked as though its signs had decided to take a world trip earlier than planned. It thanked him for pointing it out and said the error had been passed to the relevant department.