Holidaymakers have revealed the “carnage” that saw more than 100 people miss their flight home to the UK after getting stuck in three-hour passport check queues.
Passengers are facing lengthy delays at airports as a result of the new post-Brexit entry/exit system (ESS) checks, which came fully into force on 10 April.
Britons say they were “abandoned” at Milan airport by EasyJet after the airline’s flight to Manchester left without them.
Some passengers were seen vomiting and passing out as they waited on only two border control staff to process hundreds of people.
The severe delays at the end of the Easter holidays has led to concerns about further travel chaos this summer.
The new EES checks means travel to the Schengen area requires third-party nationals – including British citizens after Brexit – to have facial photos and fingerprints taken.
However, the phased introduction of the checks in recent months has been beset by IT problems and staff shortages, leading to queues of three hours or more in some cases.
Airlines and airports have warned that lengthy queues could become even more common following the full EES implementation, and have called for more flexibility for the system to be paused to avoid travel chaos for passengers.
It was carnage – a lot of people were angry
Joy Oliver, 55, from Lancaster, said she and her husband Phil queued for more than three hours at border control before being told that their EasyJet flight had left for Manchester.
She was initially told by the airline’s staff at the helpdesk, and then on the phone, that nothing could be done to help the couple get back to the UK.
However, after several hours, Oliver eventually got someone on EasyJet’s helpline to book them a hotel room in Milan. The airline also booked the couple on a flight to Edinburgh on Tuesday.
“It was carnage at the airport,” she told The i Paper. “The queue was awful in the heat.”
“There was a lady being sick, and another lady lying on the floor who thought she was going to pass out,” she added.
“It felt like complete chaos from EasyJet, because they were so unhelpful. They essentially abandoned us all, and left us high and dry. A lot of people were very angry.”
Oliver said others she spoke to spent more than £1,000 on flights going elsewhere because they could not wait for EasyJet to book them a flight back to the UK.
“I don’t know why the border control queue was so bad, except there were only two people dealing with hundreds of people.
“I don’t know whether they didn’t have enough staff or the machines weren’t working for the EES checks.
“I understand why EasyJet says they couldn’t control that. But they have a duty of care, and they didn’t look after people. People shouldn’t have to work out their own way home.”
@easyJet our flight from Milan Linate took off without us due to Border Control being FAR too busy and the automated system not working. We are now stuck in Milan, missing work, spending money that we don’t have and have to transfer from Gatwick to Manchester! pic.twitter.com/XfPshK5GZK
— Miss Benn (@Emily_Benn20) April 12, 2026EasyJet blames unacceptable EES check queues
More than 100 passengers were thought to have been stranded at Milan airport, while only around 30 made it onto the flight to Manchester.
One passenger, Max Hume, told the BBC that he was forced to spend £1,800 of his own money to get home to the UK as soon as possible via Luxembourg. He said the whole experience was “just awful”.
Another passenger, Carol Boon, told the broadcaster that she had to pay for her own apartment in Milan as she waits for a flight to Gatwick on Tuesday. She claimed EasyJet staff had “left us to fend for ourselves”.
Easyjet has apologised to the passengers caught up in the EES queues, saying those who missed the flight were offered a free flight transfer.
But the airline said the EES queues were “outside of our control”. It called for more flexibility over the new biometric checks to avoid “unacceptable” waiting times.
I waited three hours 20 minutes in a queue in Poland
Simon Palmer, from Windsor, told The i Paper that he got stuck in a “very frustrating” queue of three hours and 20 minutes at Krakow airport on Monday.
“I didn’t expect the queue for passport control to take longer than the flight. I could feel my blood sugar crashing,” said Palmer, a communications expert who had flown from the UK to Poland for work.
“The airport didn’t appear to have enough passport control desks or staff to cope,” Palmer added. “But people stayed calm and accepted their fate.”
He said airport border control staff “should absolutely be allowed to pause the EES” whenever long queues build to avoid knock-on travel chaos.
Non-EU arrivals queued for three hours at Krakow airport (Photo: Simon Palmer)EU urged to suspend EES checks when queues form
Both the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe and Airlines for Europe have pointed to waiting times of “between two and three hours” at airports across the Schengen area.
ACI Europe director Olivier Jankovec said flexibility over the new rules – which are aimed at boosting security – was needed “immediately” from EU institutions and member states, adding that it was essential to avoid disruption “throughout the peak summer travel season”.
Jankovec said border control authorities “must be allowed to fully suspend the EES when waiting times become excessive”.
Oliver Ransom, an aviation economist, said the travel disruption caused by EES checks was “so bad” that major changes were now needed.
He suggested that one way of improving the situation was for EU member states to install EES kiosks at UK airports “so people can do that part of the process before they leave”.
A spokesperson for EasyJet said it had held the flight to Manchester “for nearly an hour to give passengers extra time but it had to then depart due to crew reaching their safety regulated operating hours”.
The airline urged border authorities to use any available flexibility with EES checks “to avoid these unacceptable border delays for our customers”.
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