Airline passengers were left vomiting and passing out after becoming stranded in Milan amid border control chaos.
Around 100 easyJet customers were abandoned at Linate airport while waiting to board a flight to Manchester on Sunday with three-hour queues plaguing travellers as new EU border rules come into force.
The airline said the situation was ‘outside of our control’ and issues with the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) had caused the delays, adding that the hold-ups were ‘unacceptable’.
The system requires travellers from third-party countries, including the UK, to have their fingerprints and photographs taken as they enter the Schengen Area, which consists of 29 European countries mainly in the EU.
The Daily Mail understands easyJet delayed the flight by 52 minutes to allow customers extra time but, with the crew approaching the end of their safety-regulated operating hours, the flight was forced to head off half empty.
The saga left customers scrambling for alternative means of getting home with some only discovering they had missed their flight once it had left without them.
One passenger travelling with her boyfriend said only 30 people made it onto the plane, leaving 100 stranded at the airport.
Kiera, 17, told the BBC: ‘We got here at 7.30am for our flight at 11am so were super early.
‘We got to Border Control and it was a massive queue of people. I wasn’t feeling great anyway because I think I’d got food poisoning.
‘At about 10.50am they brought some water over for people, and when we got to the front of the queue someone asked us if we were going to Manchester, and told us our flight had just gone.’
The student added she and her boyfriend were in the middle of a 20-hour wait for another flight, leaving today and costing her mother £520.
And to make matters worse, the rearranged flight is set to land at Gatwick instead of Manchester.
Kiera said easyJet had only offered £12.25 in compensation, roughly the price of a sandwich at the airport.
Adam Lomas, 33, was holidaying in Milan with his wife Katy, 33, and their baby daughter when they got stranded.
He said he attempted to contact the airline but could not get through to a human operator – only chatbots who ‘hung up’ on him after ‘five or 10 minutes’ because there were ‘audio issues and they couldn’t hear me’.
The father said his family were now trying to a find a hotel and book new flights back to London where they would then have to get the two-and-a-half-hour train to Manchester.
He added that easyJet and the airport had ‘spent hours arguing with each other about who is to blame’.
The airline said it informed customers of the new system and advised them to check their travel documents, allow extra time at airports, be ready for biometric checks, and factor in extra waiting time when planning onward travel.
Travellers are also being encouraged to arrive early, clear security as soon as possible and head to the gate when called.
An easyJet spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘We are aware that some passengers departing from Milan Linate today experienced longer than usual waiting times at passport control and we advised customers due to fly to allow additional time to make their way through the airport.
‘We have been doing all possible to minimise the impact of the airport queues, holding flights to allow customers extra time and providing free flight transfers for any customers who may have missed their flight including EJU5420 to Manchester.
‘We continue to urge border authorities to ensure they make full and effective use of the permitted flexibilities for as long as needed while EES is implemented, to avoid these unacceptable border delays for our customers.
‘While this is outside of our control, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.’
It comes after tourists reported chaotic scenes and lengthy delays at airports across Europe earlier this week as the new digital border controls came into effect – with exasperated travellers saying they had been forced to wait ‘for hours’ at terminals, including in Lisbon, Milan and Paris, to clear immigration.
Two travellers at Lisbon airport were among those facing a long wait at passport control.
Ex-UK and EU diplomat Rupert Joy said the new system was in disarray in the Portuguese capital’s major transport hub.
He wrote on social media platform X: ‘Complete chaos at Lisbon airport. Loads of people missing flights despite arriving hours in advance because of insanely long queues to passport control.
‘No one seems to be in control or to have any idea what to do.’
Another traveller said he had experienced a similar scenario, writing: ‘Having the machines at the start of the queue before going through passport control just caused a massive queue leaving Lisbon.’
In Paris, a parent travelling with a child, believed to be at Charles de Gaulle airport wrote: ‘Absolutely ridiculous queue for passport control. EU passport with a child under 12, I’ve been queuing for over two hours and still there’s at least a hundred people ahead of me.’
At Milan’s Malpensa airport, it was a similar scenario.
‘Two hours after landing and I’m still an hour from clearing passport control. Good job. Good try,’ another delayed passenger fumed.
Controversial Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary this month accused the EU of punishing British holidaymakers over Brexit by subjecting them to hours-long passport control queues.
The chief executive, who backed Remain in the referendum, claimed the bloc was ‘undoubtedly’ forcing Britons to endure longer waits at airports as payback for leaving the EU in 2020.
UK holidaymakers jetting off to Europe have been warned of up to four-hour delays at airports as countries ramp up the deployment of a new border system.
Mr O’Leary said there had been ‘significant disruption’ at passport control since the new system was first introduced in October last year.
The system is being introduced in stages, with full operation expected from April, but has already caused backlogs and increased waiting times for passengers.
‘We are beginning to see significant disruption. That’s the next big issue. And EES has just been a s*** show and a shambles,’ the Ryanair CEO told The Times.
