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Dozens of passengers missed their flights from Lanzarote Airport on Monday morning after a failure in the automated passport control system caused major disruption for travellers heading outside the European Union.

 

The problem affected non-EU passengers, including British travellers, along with people travelling on passports from countries such as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The system is used to register entries and exits under the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which monitors stays of up to 90 days and is designed to prevent overstays and identity fraud.

 

One of the worst affected services was a Ryanair flight to Edinburgh, with almost 70 passengers reportedly unable to board because of the delays.

 

According to sources from the Policía Nacional, the disruption was caused by a failure in the passport control system itself. Other reports suggested there had also been a wider disconnection issue affecting systems elsewhere in Europe, slowing checks at several airports.

 

By around 11.00am, operations at Lanzarote Airport had already been partially disrupted, with queues and confusion building in departure areas. Although the problem was resolved by midday, many passengers had already missed their flights.

 

The latest disruption comes as concerns continue to grow over the rollout of the new EES border controls. Spanish airports have already been introducing special measures to try to ease growing queues linked to the system. Airports including Málaga, Alicante and Palma have all experienced delays in recent weeks, particularly during busy holiday periods.

 

The system has attracted criticism from airlines and travellers alike since its introduction. Earlier warnings had advised Spain-bound British passengers to arrive much earlier than usual because of long waits at border control.

 

Ryanair has now renewed calls for the Spanish government to suspend the EES until after the summer season. The airline says airports including Lanzarote, Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, Málaga and Alicante are already seeing queues lasting up to two hours at times.

 

The carrier has also criticised staffing levels and pointed to Greece’s decision to temporarily pause parts of the system during peak travel periods in order to reduce disruption for tourists.

 

Despite the problems, Spain has so far continued with the full implementation of the EES system, which replaces traditional passport stamping with digital registration and biometric checks for non-EU visitors entering and leaving the Schengen area.

 

For many passengers caught up in Monday’s disruption, however, the technology designed to make travel smoother ended up causing a stressful start to the week instead.