A Ryanair (FR) flight from Athens International Airport (ATH), Athens, to London Luton Airport (LTN) departed on Sunday without more than 20 passengers who failed to clear a “mega queue” at border control. Temperatures at the airport reached over 30C while travelers waited. The aircraft eventually left an hour late, once staff had unloaded the bags belonging to those left behind.
Ryanair blamed the incident on border-control delays at Athens airport. The airport itself pointed to “additional processing requirements” without naming a specific cause. Neither side directly blamed the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), even though the new border checks have been linked to similar incidents at other European airports this summer.
What Happened at the Athens Gate
Passenger Milo Boyd told the BBC the flight was hit by a “mega queue” at the airport. He reached the gate just before it closed. At least 20 other travellers did not make it in time.
Boyd described the scene at the gate as distressing for those who missed the flight. “These poor people were pleading with the Ryanair staff to let them through”, he said, adding that some travellers broke down while others looked close to losing their temper. Reports on the number of passengers left behind have varied, with some accounts citing as many as 50.
Airport authorities stepped in at the gate to manage the situation as frustration grew among stranded passengers. Ryanair, the carrier that got into a public spat with Starlink last year, confirmed that a number of passengers did not board in time. The airline said those who did reach the gate before boarding closed travelled without incident.
Why Athens Airport Saw Such Long Queues
The disruption comes amid the rollout of the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), which records fingerprints and a facial image for most non-EU travellers entering or leaving the Schengen Area. The system replaces manual passport stamping for short-stay visitors crossing the external borders of 29 European countries.
Greek tourism minister Olga Kefalogianni had said in April that British travellers would not face biometric checks or be “burdened” with extra bureaucracy in Greece this summer. The Greek Foreign Ministry later appeared to step back from that position, saying it had no information confirming any nationality was exempt from the relevant procedure.
Journalist Milo Boyd, who boarded the Athens flight successfully, said his fingerprints were not scanned on entry or exit. This raises questions about how consistently the EES is being applied at Athens airport.
How This Compares with Other Ryanair Border-Queue Incidents
This is not the first time border-control queues have caused a Ryanair flight to depart without its full passenger list this year. Earlier in June, around 150 passengers missed Ryanair flight FR282 from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS) to London Stansted Airport (STN) after queues swelled to between 400 and 500 people.
One passenger told The Connexion the scene at Toulouse was “pure chaos,” with four flights boarding at once and no clear separation between queues. Ryanair said at the time that passengers who reached the boarding gate before it closed had been accommodated. The airline disputed claims that anyone had been wrongly left behind.
In March, a Ryanair flight from Lanzarote Airport (ACE) to Bristol Airport (BRS) departed roughly half-empty, leaving nearly 90 passengers behind in the Canary Islands. Ryanair said passengers who presented at the gate on time would have boarded alongside the 90 who did make it. In April, about 100 Manchester-bound EasyJet passengers were also left stranded in Milan after queues of up to three hours at passport control.
Compared with the Toulouse and Lanzarote incidents, the Athens case stands out for the extreme heat passengers endured while queuing. It also stands out for the unresolved confusion over whether British travelers to Greece are meant to be exempt from EES checks this summer.
What Travelers Should Expect This Summer
Long queues linked to EES checks have now affected airports in Greece, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The system requires biometric registration only on a traveler’s first crossing into the Schengen Area, but airports are still adjusting their processing capacity to handle the extra step.
The UK boss of Wizz Air told the BBC in May that British holidaymakers should arrive at European airports at least three hours before departure. Several passengers caught up in the Toulouse and Athens incidents have echoed that advice, saying the usual two-hour buffer is no longer reliable.
Travelers heading to Greece this summer face additional uncertainty given the back-and-forth over exemptions for British nationals. Anyone flying through Athens or other high-traffic EU airports should treat early arrival as a necessity rather than a precaution.