Ryanair passengers flying from Milan Bergamo to Manchester last week were left behind due to problems with passport control, the airline has confirmed.
The introduction of a European digital border control system, known as the Entry-Exit System (EES), has been blamed for long delays at European airports.
“Had these passengers presented themselves at the boarding gate desk before it closed, they would have boarded this flight,” Ryanair said.
Earlier this month, EasyJet left passengers behind in a similar incident at another Milan airport, Linate, due to fly to Manchester.
The BBC has seen video of the crowd forming at Milan Bergamo, with frustrated passengers shouting at staff as they waited at the gate for more than an hour, “What are we going to do?” are asking that. And said the information was “too late”.
The EES requires non-EU citizens, including Britons, to register biometric information, including face scans and fingerprints, which can be checked each time they cross the European Schengen Area border.
It has been phased since October and would be fully operational on April 10.
However, its introduction has been more successful in some parts of Europe than others.
Ryanair said: “Due to passport control delays at Milan Bergamo Airport on 16 April, a number of passengers missed this flight from Milan to Manchester.”
According to a passenger, about 30 people are stranded. Ryanair did not say how many passengers were affected.
Milan Bergamo Airport has been contacted for comment.
EES is operated by the relevant border control authority in each country, rather than by the airport or airline.
‘total chaos’
Adam Hassanji, 18, from Bolton, was one of the passengers stranded in Italy.
“We were waiting for an hour and a half and were not moving,” he told the BBC.
“Then we saw the plane leave and were told we had to go and get our own flight back.”
He said about 80 passengers were in the passport control line, including people from four flights.
“People were pushing us back who were on a later flight than us. Some were let go. It was total chaos. None of the organizations and staff cared,” he said.
As there were no flights available on the same day, he had to book a flight from Bergamo to Malta, then to Leeds.
The BBC has received complaints about Ryanair flights leaving people behind on the day EES is due to open in all Schengen countries, although Ryanair has not confirmed this to the BBC.
Peter Walker, 42, his two-year-old and his wife were dropped off at Tenerife South Airport on 10 April along with “about 70 other people” who he said were mainly young families.
Peter Walker [Peter Walker]
Walker said queues at passport control were “chaotic” due to EES checks and so long that he and his family missed a flight.
Walker and his family were traveling to East Midlands Airport, but had to find an alternative route home that ended up costing £1,600 because the next available Ryanair flight wasn’t until a week later.
He couldn’t wait until then, because he is a teacher and needs to be at school.
“There was a lack of communication and support from Ryanair. There was no one to reassure us or talk about options,” he said.
His travel insurance policy said he wasn’t covered in this situation, so there’s no chance of a refund, although he’s talking to Citizens Advice.
A European Commission spokesman told the BBC that the EES system was “working very well”. In the overwhelming majority of EU member states, it said there was “no problem”.
But it acknowledged “some Member States where technical problems have been discovered – which is to be expected on the first day of full operation of any major new system”.
The Commission says the aim of this system is to make borders more secure and protect EU citizens.
Since the EES came into effect in October, it said, more than 56 million border crossings had been registered, and 28,500 people had been denied entry, 700 of whom had been identified as security threats.
Additional reporting by James Kelly and Faria Masood.
