More than 100 passengers were left stranded at Milan Linate Airport on Sunday after an easyJet flight to Manchester took off without them, following hours of chaos at passport control. What unfolded on April 12 has quickly become one of the clearest warning signs yet of how Europe’s new border system is disrupting travel in real time.
Passengers due to board the 11am flight said they arrived well in advance, expecting a routine departure. Instead, they were met with massive queues at immigration, where delays stretched from 90 minutes to nearly three hours. By the time many finally reached the gate, they were told the flight had already left.
“We got to the airport at 8am,” one passenger said, describing how the situation spiralled. “As soon as the gate appeared, there was already a huge queue for three flights. Hundreds of people were trying to get through at once.”
The confusion only deepened as departure boards continued to show the flight as boarding, even as time passed. Then came the shock. Around 11:20am, passengers were informed the Manchester-bound plane had departed without them.
3-hour queues, missed flights and £400 taxi bills
Scenes inside Milan Linate were described as chaotic, with passengers packed into long lines as border staff struggled to process travellers. Some said the situation was so intense that people were visibly unwell while waiting, highlighting just how severe the delays had become.
In total, it’s believed more than 100 passengers missed the flight, with one traveller claiming the aircraft left with barely a third of its expected passengers onboard. Social media posts described it as a “nightmare”, with travellers saying they had effectively been abandoned after hours of waiting.
For many, the disruption didn’t end at the airport. One group of six passengers, including a child due to undergo spinal surgery within days, were forced to rebook flights to London Gatwick instead of Manchester. From there, they faced an additional £400 taxi journey just to return to their parked car.
Others reported paying for last-minute hotels and alternative flights out of Milan, turning what should have been a short journey home into an expensive and exhausting ordeal.
“The 11am flight left without half the plane,” one passenger wrote online. “We queued for hours, and all the time it still said boarding. Then suddenly we were told it had gone.”
New EU biometric system triggers major airport delays
The root cause of the disruption appears to be the rollout of the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), a digital border control process that replaces manual passport stamping with biometric registration.
Under the system, travellers entering or leaving the Schengen area may need to provide fingerprints and a facial image, a process that takes longer than traditional checks, particularly during the early stages of implementation.
At Milan Linate, passengers said the system was either not functioning properly or was being handled manually, leading to severe bottlenecks. With only limited staff processing large numbers of travellers, queues quickly spiralled out of control.
According to official UK travel guidance, delays are expected as the system is introduced, with passengers advised to allow extra time at border control. More details can be found on the Gov.uk foreign travel advice page.
However, for those caught in Sunday’s disruption, the warning came too late.
easyJet confirmed it held the Manchester flight for nearly an hour beyond its scheduled departure to allow more passengers to board. But ultimately, the airline said it had no choice but to depart due to strict crew working hour limits, which are governed by safety regulations.
The airline added that affected passengers were offered free flight transfers and apologised for the disruption, while also criticising the border delays as “unacceptable”.
Still, the incident raises difficult questions about responsibility. While airlines must follow safety rules, passengers expect to reach their flight if they arrive hours early. When delays happen before security or passport control, travellers often find themselves caught in a gap where no single authority takes full ownership.
The Milan chaos also highlights a growing pressure point across European travel. As the EES system rolls out more widely, similar scenes could become more common, especially during peak travel periods like Easter and summer holidays.
For now, the message to travellers is becoming increasingly clear: arriving early may no longer be enough. With longer processing times at borders and unpredictable queues, even well-prepared passengers risk missing flights through no fault of their own.
For those stranded in Milan, the experience has already left a lasting impression. What should have been a straightforward journey turned into hours of uncertainty, unexpected costs and frustration. And as Europe’s travel systems adjust to new technology, this may be just the beginning of a wider shift in how smooth — or chaotic — airport journeys can become.
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