We've just had our latest flying experience, going from Newcastle, England to Madeira, Portugal.
The UK (and Europe) gave up the requirement to remove your shoes some time ago and Newcastle doesn't have full body scanners, plus we didn't have a pat down after passing through the metal detector. It was the same process coming back through security at Madeira.
Madeira immigration was a different experience for us. You had to go through passport control entering and leaving the country, but we never spoke to an immigration officer as it was all self service, if you had a recent, electronic passport.
There was a row of self service machines with an attendant walking up and down to assist where needed. You slid your passport face down into a slot and after the details were extracted your passport picture appeared on a screen. You removed your passport, stepped forward onto footmarks where your photo was taken and appeared on the screen alongside your passport picture. After a few seconds the photo is verified and the gate opens up for you to pass through. If something is wrong the attendant directs you to stand in the regular line to see an immigration officer. It was very quick and easy.
Last year we spent almost an hour in line at passport control in Houston because the process for permanent residents now appears to be the same as visitors where they do finger printing etc. Although they split out visitors, US passport holders are still required to line up along with "Green Card" holders who now take much longer to get processed. Is this just a Houston thing, or do other airports now segregate US Passport holders from permanent residents ("Green Card" holders) ?