Airport chaos as tourists are forced to queue for HOURS trying to get home after Easter holidays & miss crucial flights
FUMING passengers were forced to queue for HOURS and miss their Easter flights amid airport travel chaos on Sunday.
Disgruntled holidaymakers sparked outrage when they shared their Bank Holiday horror stories at Faro Airport in the Algarve yesterday.
It was supposed to be a day filled with joy and excitement as Brits travelled from Portugal to be reunited with family to celebrate.
Flights for those coming back to return to work after the long Easter weekend were just as crucial.
Faro Airport, Not enough staff, electronic gates that don’t work. People stuck for over three hours and not moving. Happy Easter.”
Jeff Stelling
But, disaster struck when e-gates, introduced to replace border control staff, malfunctioned.
Plans were squashed for many as tourists came to a grinding halt before the electronic barriers.
People were forced to watch three hours tick by as their planes took off the runway without them.
One disgruntled customer, Jess Booker, claimed to The Times a “lack of staff” worsened the delays.
She also blamed poor planning on account of “a high number of UK flights arriving at the same time”.
Meanwhile, former Sky Sports reporter, Jeff Stelling also blasted the carnage and posted a telling snap on X/Twitter.
The photo, not taken by Mr Stelling, revealed hoards of tourists crammed in the space, with hundreds force to line up along staircases.
He slammed the airport and captioned the picture: “Faro Airport, Not enough staff, electronic gates that don’t work. People stuck for over three hours and not moving. Happy Easter.”
Anna Soubry, the former Conservative business minister, weighed in on the issue, dubbing it “appalling”.
“As you say they don’t have enough staff on and the e-gates are barely ever open,” she replied to Mr Stelling.
“At least the sun is now shining! My better half is stuck in the same queue.”
‘FARO FARCE’
And, outraged passenger Mark Tate was faced with missing two business meetings due to the Faro “farce”.
He claimed it took a gruelling two hours to make it through passport control.
Faro Airport has been contacted for comment.
It comes as Brits were hit with lots of travel chaos this Easter at train stations, airports and on major roads up and down the country.
Drivers were sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours, as those making their journey by railway services were halted by delays and cancellations.
Network Rail was giving ticketholders frequent updates on the endless disruption as snakes of queues started forming in busy stations.
Meanwhile 20-mile long lines of traffic were spotted along major motorways on Good Friday.
The RAC predicted there would be about 2.6million car journeys made of the first day of Easter celebrations.
Elsewhere, the processing time at the Port of Dover hit two hours for tourists on Friday.
Officials predicted there would be around 20,000 cars making their way through between Thursday and Easter Monday.
Stormy weather only worsened travel conditions as the Met Office recorded strong gales of up to 50mph from lasting effects of Storm Nelson.