easyJet passengers vomiting and passing out as flight leaves without them | Travel News | Travel
Long queues formed at border control (Image: X/Emily_Benn20)
easyJet passengers were ‘in danger of fainting’ after being left in the heat when their flight departed for Manchester without them due to border control chaos.
Nearly 100 people were stranded in Milan on Sunday, April 12, after waiting in line for nearly three hours at Milan’s Linate airport due to new border controls.
Besides concerns about how to get home, many passengers vomited and fainted due to the heat, according to the BBC.
easyJet said it was working to provide support to passengers but the situation was “out of our control”.
Huge queues formed at the international airport, causing chaos Mirror.
Passengers board an easyJet flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, on November 14, 2025. (Photo: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Image: Getty)
Photos and videos shared online showed scenes of chaos as large queues formed at the international airport.
The outage comes after the UK government updated its guidance for people traveling to the European Schengen area, meaning they may be required to record biometric details when they arrive.
The implementation of the EU entry and exit system (EES) is an electronic system that replaces the physical stamping of passports when passing through boarding control.
The airline said it held the plane for almost an extra hour but eventually the crew had to leave due to working hours.
Passengers were left disappointed after arriving at the airport too early and now face significant delays to return home.
Emily Benn, from Grimsby, was traveling with five friends on the 11am service. His new flight will now land in Gatwick rather than Manchester and he will face a £400 taxi fare on arrival.
He told MEN: “We arrived at the airport at 8am and our flight was supposed to leave Milan Linate at 11am. “As soon as our gate was on the board we went straight there and there was already a huge queue.
“The queue was for three separate flights and hundreds of passengers were trying to get through. The new EES was not working so we all had to be checked by two people at passport control.
“It was 11.20am and we were told the flight had left without us. They put us all on a shuttle bus and sent us back to the arrivals area where we had to go back to the easyJet desk.
“We were told to rebook flights so we booked into Gatwick and as we parked our car there we would be paying £400 for a taxi back to Manchester. We are a group of five adults and a child who is having spinal surgery in a few days.”
Other passengers took to social media to share their similarly harrowing ordeals. One wrote: “What a nightmare!
“You left me and 122 other passengers in Milan. You flew to Manchester with 34 passengers.
“We waited in line for three hours and while the flight information remained in ‘boarding’, we were told that the delayed flight had departed.” An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are aware that some passengers leaving Milan Linate today experienced longer than usual wait times at passport control and have advised customers who are due to fly to be given additional time to get to the airport.
“We flew flight EJU5420 from Milan to Manchester for approximately an hour to give passengers extra time, but had to abandon the flight due to the crew reaching working hours subject to safety regulations. Customers who missed the flight were offered a free flight transfer.
“To avoid these unacceptable border delays for our customers, we continue to call on border authorities to ensure that they make full and effective use of the flexibilities allowed for as long as needed when implementing the EES. While this is beyond our control, we apologize for any inconvenience.”
