Passport-control bottleneck leaves 89 Ryanair passengers behind in Lanzarote, raises alarms ahead of EU biometric rollout

Holiday-makers heading from Lanzarote to Bristol faced a nightmare on Saturday when non-Schengen passport queues spiralled so badly that Ryanair staff off-loaded 89 passengers and departed half-empty to avoid breaching its Heathrow slot on arrival. Witnesses reported just two Policía Nacional officers manning the booths as three UK-bound flights funneled into the same hall.

The incident has reignited debate over Spain’s readiness for the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), due to go live on 10 April. Airport operator AENA insists additional e-gates will be installed by Easter, yet unions say staffing levels remain 30 percent below pre-pandemic norms in the Canary Islands.



Travellers hoping to avoid similar headaches can turn to VisaHQ’s streamlined portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) for real-time advice on Spanish entry rules, visa options, and the forthcoming EES biometric requirements; the service also offers renewal reminders and document-courier support, making it easier to glide past airport bottlenecks.

Ryanair, already embroiled in a row with AENA over proposed fee increases, blamed “airport mis-management” and hinted that more capacity could be shifted to Morocco and Albania if queues persist. Consumer groups counter that the airline’s tight turnaround model leaves zero buffer for disruptions and breaches EU261 obligations when it off-loads checked bags without rebooking passengers.

For corporate travel programmes the episode is a cautionary tale: travellers without EU passports may need to arrive three hours early for peak-season departures, while mobility teams should brief assignees on EES fingerprint and facial-scan requirements to avoid secondary inspections.