EES at Copenhagen Airport?

Some recent info. here:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/denmark/going-through-entry-exit-system-ees-at-copenhagen-airport

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/denmark/schengen-zone-ees-at-copenhagen

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/denmark/eu-entry

I've seen some people claim they'll pull people out of line when it
comes close to their flight time, but to keep an eye out for them...
is this something easy to miss haha?

You'll see them. When i was there, they were not pulling poeople out of line until the plane was boarding.

Thanks, Carrie. I read through these but noticed they were perhaps a bit older, so I wondered if people had other recent experiences to attest to and especially if three hours should be enough.

I also wondered if there are standard gates that I can be prepared to head to? This confused me just a bit but it would help if I know ahead of time which direction I should be headed! For example will flights from Canada often arrive in the same place, and flights to Norway generally depart from the same gate? I will be flying SAS for the entire way fwiw.

You have LOTS of time, CPH is very manageable. The last 2 times I went through in the past few months, there were NO EES machines, just an immigration officer. (Avoid the line for flight crew!)

PS, Just head to immigration. I wouldn't worry about specific landing or take offs, I've come in & exited at different gates depending. Once I asked an agent, it was a 10-minute walk to departure gate, that's about the longest I've seen.

How can we tell which line is for flight crew? I also have a departure mid-August from Stockholm to CPH to US. We land in CPH at 11:00 but leg 2 departure to US is 12:45! I perused the CPH departure on that day and there's multiple flights to North America arorund 12:00-1:00!

How can we tell which line is for flight crew?

Upon arrival, where the line will split into 4 lines, the line closest to the right is the one to avoid.

I just passed through EES at Copenhagen on Monday. I spent 1 hour+ in line and barely made my flight. We arrived at the airport 3 hours ahead of time, but first had to drop off the car. (That was probably our mistake.)...I just read a recent article in the New York Times, published on July 20, about this situation. The title is Europe’s New Entry/Exit System Is a Mess, and It’s Not Going Away. What I understand from the different posts and talking to people is that sometimes it's bad, and sometimes it's not.

Arriving at Copenhagen, we waited around 50 minutes in line. We got out of our flight and line wasn't too long but my little guy had to use the bathroom, and at that moment my older son noticed a parade of people walking towards the line (another flight landed), so we got in line just in time. The line grew super long behind us as more flights landed around same time (12PM on a Thursday).

Leaving, we flew in from Stockholm and had a 1.5 hour layover on Copenhagen. We landed in terminal A and sprinted to terminal E with our little guy and short legs haha. The EES line took us about 40 minutes and we made it to our gate with 10 minutes before doors closing. They kept pulling up people to the front with flights that had started boarding, so I think factor that in too. Because the line wasn't too long when we got in. At one point, there was a bunch of people flying to Istabul, who tried to move up to the front when staff called for a Toronto flight that was boarding. The staff didn't let them through, but they had walked though the line to get to the staff and essentially cut a whole bunch of people, so that added extra time to my wait.

Well today was easily the longest wait times coming & going from Schengen at CPH. ENTERING Schengen was much longer ( at least 2 hours.). A few people with close connections asked & received permission to use EU lines. Once you’re in the very short EU line, don’t use the e gates. It was a quick 2 minute wait for an officer.

Thanks to Mr E, yep as a Permanent Resident I could use the EU line. ( although it was NOT posted at entry to EU lines. Good luck!

This has me nervous. I have a layover in CPH of 2hrs 15 min. around 10am on my way to Switzerland next week. When I made my reservations I thought this would be enough based off comments about how efficient CPH is, but EES changes things for sure. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.

I wouldn’t worry too much. It’s rare that lines are that long, and they regularly invite people with short connections to the front. You can always ask the staff if you start cutting it close.

I should have been more clear - I saw a number of people with tight connections in the EU passport line, no one was asking if anyone would miss their flight, but if you run short on time, just head to the EU lines, hope that helps! (And no one was turned away either.)