BRITS travelling through Malaga Airport say they faced ‘chaos’ at passport control over the weekend, with queues for UK flights stretching back into the public areas of Terminal 3.
Passengers reported being stuck in line for so long that some missed departures entirely, forcing them to stay overnight on the Costa del Sol and attempt to fly again the following day.
One traveller said the queue for British passports was ‘way back to the cafe area’, adding she had ‘never seen it like this before’.
Another urged people to ‘give yourself plenty of time to get through passport control’, while others described a ‘huge’ queue ‘just to reach the booths’.
At 10.20am on Saturday morning, a passenger shared a photo of crowds waiting to enter the UK lane, writing: “Oh the joy of Brexit.”
Others claimed they stood in line for more than two hours, with one family missing their 12.20pm flight after joining the queue around 10am.
A traveller from Estepona said the ‘set up is just madness’ and that they were forced to stay an extra night.
The frustration comes as Malaga Airport continues rolling out new border-control technology linked to the EU’s upcoming Entry Exit System, which will require non EU nationals to register fingerprints and a facial image on arrival or departure.
Several passengers claimed scanners installed last year have only now been activated, slowing down the flow of travellers as staff adjust to the system.
The chaos has also exposed the gap between peak-time and off-peak travel at the airport.
Some passengers reported being ‘through in ten minutes’, while others found passport control ‘completely empty’ later in the afternoon with ‘six staff on and not one passenger’.
The unpredictable waits have fuelled anger among travellers, with some calling for the UK to ‘reciprocate the treatment’.
It comes as Malaga Airport closed October with its highest ever passenger figures.
New data from Aena shows an average of 83,116 passengers used the airport every day last month, with a total of 2,576,610 travellers passing through the terminals.
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That marks a 6.1% rise on last October and puts Malaga among the fastest growing major airports in Spain, well above the national average of 4.5%.
Traffic this October was comparable to peak summer months, adding pressure at a time normally considered calmer.
More than 614,000 arrivals and departures involved the UK market, by far the airport’s largest international segment.
In total, Malaga handled 23.3 million passengers in the first ten months of the year, up 7.3% on 2024.
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If current trends continue, the airport is on track to finish 2025 with more than 27 million travellers.
Aena says the growth is driven by strong demand from both domestic and international routes, with notable surges from countries including Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Morocco.
But for Brits caught in this week’s queues, the numbers offered little comfort as they urged fellow travellers to arrive early and brace for delays.
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