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28 Apr
After two years of travel disruption, summer holidays are back on people’s minds with many of us planning trips abroad.
This has resulted in mayhem at some airports as soaring passenger numbers combined with staff shortages has resulted in long queues.
One airport in Spain has been accused of giving Irish passengers “preferential treatment” with an “express lane” by some British passport holders, as they have no choice but to watch on from a separate queue.
Travellers have been sharing pictures from Malaga Airport which has sectioned off into two separate passport queues. One is sealed off with black tape and signposted with a union jack for ‘all passengers’. The other is enclosed with green tape and shows an Irish tricolour and EU flag while labelled for ‘EU citizens’.
Since Brexit, British tourists are only allowed to stay in the Schengen area (a free movement area without border controls that includes 26 countries including Spain but excluding Ireland) for 90 out of 180 days and must get their passports stamped when they leave or could face being refused entry on another visit.
Meanwhile Irish citizens benefit from EU-wide passenger rights for travel into, out of, or within the EU by air, rail, bus/coach or ship.
Sharing a picture of the scene inside Malaga Airport, Twitter user @winding_sios wrote: "The express bus lane (green tape) with the automated turnstiles is for Irish EU citizens. The Disneyland queue (black tape) with the police toll booths is for non-EU citizens."
One British passenger claimed Irish citizens are getting “preferential treatment" while others reported "two hour queues for non-EU passengers".
A Twitter user said: "Sitting in Malaga Airport to return. What a joke! A huge queue for UK passengers stretching all the way back to duty free exit…whilst the lane for EU empty."
“Preferential treatment for the one flight to Ireland. Travellers beware,” another added.
A third wrote: "Queues for passport control are ridiculous. Allow an extra hour after security for the passport control."
It comes as up to 3,000 passengers missed their flights at Madrid Airport over the Easter break, according to local media, with fears those scenes could be repeated over the Summer holidays.
President of Airlines Association (ALA) in Spain Javier Gandara said: “There have already been problems at the airports over Easter and we need to avoid this happening in peak season.”
He has called for National Police officers to be put on duty in Spanish airports to check passports, particularly British ones.
“It will be the first summer when passports for travellers to the UK have to be checked and the first when air traffic is likely to be normal, now that the British government has lifted all the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic,” he added.