Border chaos hits Europe: Airlines and airports blame each other as new EU travel rules spark massive delays and leave families with young children stranded

British travelers are facing long delays due to new EU border rules leaving families with young children stranded abroad.

Entry/Exit System (EES) It requires travelers from third-party countries, including the United Kingdom, to have their fingerprints and photographs taken when entering the Schengen area.

Passengers traveling across Europe were affected by delays and cancellations over the weekend due to long queues at passport control in destinations including Geneva, Lisbon and Malta.

The disruption continued today, with passengers waiting for their passports to be checked at Brussels Airport and Schiphol in Amsterdam reporting delays of up to two hours on social media.

One traveler in Amsterdam described ‘older people and parents with young children’ queuing at the passport gates, ‘almost none of which were open’. The airport’s website confirmed there were ‘long delays’.

In Milan, hit by a heat wave, airline passengers vomited and fainted after waiting for up to three hours last night.

Nearly 100 easyJet customers were abandoned at Linate airport to catch a flight to Manchester after the crew decided to leave without them.

EasyJet said the situation was ‘out of our control’ and that issues with the EU’s new border plan were causing delays, adding that the delays were ‘unacceptable’.

Passengers were left behind at Milan Linate Airport yesterday due to border control chaos

Nearly 100 easyJet customers waiting for flights to Manchester were abandoned at Linate airport on Sunday

Aviation expert Sally Gethin said the EES rollout was ‘not going well’.

“This makes for a bumpy ride and a huge headache for passengers,” he told the Daily Mail.

‘This will continue for a few more weeks and even when it has completely subsided there may still be some occasional problems.

‘But you can expect that. There are always teething problems when new technology comes along.

‘When you put all this bureaucracy and the people who have to implement it you’re always going to run into problems. It’s also incredibly ambitious and covers many countries.’

Ms Gethin said many flyers were ‘confused’ about the program and believed the UK government could do more to educate them.

‘The UK government has come under criticism for not raising enough awareness,’ he said.

‘For the average traveler this is quite confusing. You’re going on vacation so you’ll be a little stressed already

‘You also often experience Flyers who thought they only needed to enter their personal data once but now have to do this multiple times.’

The Mail understands easyJet delayed last night’s flight to Milan by 52 minutes to give customers extra time, but the flight was forced to depart half empty as crews approached the end of their safety-regulated working hours.

This saga left customers looking for alternative ways to return home; some only realized they had missed their flights after setting off without them.

A passenger traveling with her boyfriend said that only 30 people could board the plane and 100 people were stranded at the airport.

Kiera, 17, said: BBC: ‘We arrived here at 7.30am for our 11am flight, so we arrived very early. We arrived at border control and there was a huge queue. I wasn’t feeling well anyway because I think I had food poisoning.

‘Around 10.50am they brought people some water and when we got to the front of the queue someone asked us if we were going to Manchester and said our flight had just left.’

The student added that she and her boyfriend were in the middle of a 20-hour wait for another flight, which they left today, costing her mum £520.

To make matters worse, the rescheduled flight will land in Gatwick instead of Manchester.

Kiera says easyJet only offered £12.25 in compensationroughly the price of a sandwich at the airport.

Meanwhile, Vicky Chapman, 26, from Wirral, was left abandoned in the Italian city with her five-year-old son Fredrik, partner Adam Hoijord, mother Lynne Chapman and brother Dan Chapman.

He said: ‘We arrived at the airport with more time than necessary and arrived at our gate at 9.30 in the morning, but we were definitely not allowed to enter through passport control.

‘We were then told that we ‘didn’t show up’ for our flight because we couldn’t get to the gate in time, even though there were problems with passport control and they wouldn’t let us through.

‘We were moved from pillar to post for three hours and no one helped us. The airport was so hot that people were vomiting, people almost fainted. We were told we would be able to return on Tuesday at the earliest and that we would need to fly to Gatwick. ‘We had to pay for Airbnb out of pocket.’

The Daily Mail understands easyJet delayed the flight by 52 minutes to give customers extra time but the flight was forced to take off as crew were approaching their shift limit

New biometric Entry and Exit System machines at Malaga Airport in Spain

Adam Lomas, 33, was stranded while on holiday in Milan with his wife Katy, 33, and their young daughter.

He said he tried to contact the airline but was unable to reach a human operator, only for the “chatbots” to hang up after “five or 10 minutes” because “they had audio issues and couldn’t hear me.”

The father said his family were now trying to find a hotel and booked new flights back to London, from where they would have to take the two-and-a-half-hour train to Manchester.

He added that EasyJet and the airport ‘spent hours arguing with each other about who was to blame’.

The airline said it has informed customers about the new system and advised them to check their travel documents, allow extra time at airports, be prepared for biometric checks and account for extra waiting time when planning onward travel.

Travelers are also encouraged to arrive early, ensure security as soon as possible, and proceed to the gate when called.

A spokesperson for EasyJet told the Daily Mail: ‘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 are doing everything possible to minimize the impact of airport queues, arranging flights to give customers extra time and providing free flight transfers to any customers who may have missed their flights including EJU5420 to Manchester.

‘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 out of our control, we apologize for any inconvenience caused.’

The statement comes after tourists reported chaotic scenes and long delays at airports across Europe as new digital border controls came into force earlier this week; Exasperated travelers said they had to wait ‘for hours’ at terminals to clear migrants, including in Lisbon, Milan and Paris.

Two passengers at Lisbon Airport were among those waiting for a long time at passport control.

Former UK and EU diplomat Rupert Joy said the new system was in disarray at the main transport hub of the Portuguese capital.

He wrote on social media platform X: ‘Complete chaos at Lisbon airport. Due to incredibly long queues for passport control, many people miss their flights despite arriving hours in advance.

‘No one seems to be in control or have any idea what to do.’

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, pictured, described the rollout of the new system as a ‘s*** show and a mess’

Another traveler experienced a similar scenario, writing: ‘The machines being at the head of the queue before going through passport control caused a huge queue when leaving Lisbon.’

In Paris, a parent traveling with her child and 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 waiting in the queue for over two hours and there are still at least a hundred people ahead of me.’

A similar scenario played out at Milan’s Malpensa airport.

‘Two hours after landing and still an hour to go until I finish passport control. Well done. ‘Nice try,’ another late passenger fumed.

Controversial Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary this month accused the EU of punishing British holidaymakers by subjecting them to hours-long passport control queues over Brexit.

The CEO, who favored remaining in the EU in the referendum, claimed the bloc was ‘undoubtedly’ forcing Britons to wait longer at airports as the price of leaving the EU in 2020.

British holidaymakers flying to Europe have been warned of delays of up to four hours at airports as countries step up the deployment of a new border system.

Mr O’Leary said there had been ‘significant disruption’ to passport control since the new system was introduced in October last year.

The system is being introduced in phases and is expected to be fully operational from April, but has already caused backlogs and increased waiting times for passengers.

‘We are starting to see significant disruption. That’s the next big problem. The EES is a complete spectacle and a shambles,” Ryanair’s CEO told The Times.