The two Parisian airports Orly and Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle were notably affected, as was the Gare du Nord. According to Paris Aéroport, the time is now for a “gradual return to normal”.
A national outage affected the Parafe system at several French airports as well as that of Gare du Nord, causing up to an hour delay at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport on Wednesday, but without resulting in cancellations flight or train. According to Paris Aéroport, the first technical problems were detected on Tuesday evening, “without causing any impact” at this moment. Around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the operator said on its Twitter account that the outage was now over and that a “gradual return to normal» was committed.
The Parafe system, controlled by the Border Police, uses facial recognition to check the authenticity of a passport and verify the resemblance of the photo to its holder. It is used for border crossings, hence the delays caused at Gare du Nord for travelers to the United Kingdom. According to information collected by LCI, it was a failure related to the consultation of files. When the passengers scanned their passport, the consultation of the police files was not done and the passenger therefore remained stuck inside the airlock.
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The two Parisian airports, Orly and Roissy Charles de Gaulle, were affected, the Gare du Nord as well as all the other French airports with international connections and therefore equipped with this control system. According to Paris Aéroport, the first delays were recorded this Wednesday morning, when some passengers at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport had to wait more than an hour for the situation to settle. “In other airports, the waiting time was about twenty minutes“, assures Paris Aéroport.