Passengers Stranded in Milan
About 100 people were left behind trying to board an easyJet flight from Milan to Manchester amid major delays at passport control tied to the new border checks (manchestereveningnews.co.uk). The incident was reported as part of broader disruption as new biometric procedures caused gate and boarding chaos (manchestereveningnews.co.uk).
About 100 easyJet passengers were left in Milan on Sunday, April 12, after passport-control queues delayed them long enough to miss a flight to Manchester. (yahoo.com) The passengers were booked on an 11 a.m. departure from Milan Linate Airport and faced waits of up to three hours at border control, according to accounts carried by Yahoo and local reporting cited there. One passenger told reporters the flight had already gone by 11:20 a.m. when people in the queue were turned back. (uk.news.yahoo.com) Witnesses described heat and crowding in the queue, with some travelers saying people were vomiting or close to fainting while waiting to reach the gate area. A party rerouted to London Gatwick instead of Manchester said it then faced a £400 taxi ride to get back to its car. (uk.news.yahoo.com) The disruption came two days after the European Union’s Entry/Exit System became fully operational on April 10, 2026. The system replaces manual passport stamping for short-stay non-European Union travelers with digital records tied to passport scans, fingerprints and a facial image. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) The new checks apply at the external borders of 29 European countries using the system, including Italy, and they are aimed at tracking entries, exits and overstays in the Schengen area. French government guidance says the rollout began on October 12, 2025 and moved to full operation on April 10, 2026. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) (diplomatie.gouv.fr) EasyJet said the long waits at Milan Linate were “outside of our control” and said it had warned customers to allow extra time because each Entry/Exit System check could take longer than usual. The airline also said it was trying to support affected passengers. (yahoo.com) (uk.news.yahoo.com) The Milan case quickly became an early test of how the new border regime can ripple into airline operations when queues build faster than airports can process them. Reports from the weekend said only about 30 passengers made it onto the Manchester flight before it departed. (msn.com) For travelers, the immediate change is simple: border checks that used to end with a stamp can now require a biometric stop, and the first days of full rollout have already produced missed flights at one airport. In Milan, that left dozens of people still trying to get home after the plane to Manchester had gone. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) (yahoo.com)
