Passengers at Madrid-Barajas Airport have blasted ‘total chaos’ at passport control after huge queues allegedly caused hundreds of travellers to miss their flights.
Videos shared on social media on Sunday showed massive crowds packed into Terminal 4 of the travel hub, with furious passengers accusing authorities of poor organisation and mismanagement.
One traveller, Daniela Almeida Puyol, wrote on X: ‘Today, TOTAL CHAOS at the passport controls in T4 at Madrid-Barajas Airport.
‘Hundreds of passengers have missed our Iberia flights due to the lack of organisation, coordination and management by AENA.’
The Spanish Eye has contacted Iberia and Aena for comment.
Footage accompanying the post showed densely packed queues stretching across the terminal as passengers struggled to move through the control area.
Another viral post described the scenes as ‘incomprehensible’, adding: ‘The queues at T4 Madrid-Barajas departure passport control are unacceptable.’
The videos appeared to show hundreds of travellers trapped in bottlenecks while trying to pass through border checks.
Many social media users claimed passengers were missing long-haul and international departures due to the delays, with some describing the atmosphere inside the terminal as ‘desperate’.
The incident comes as Spanish airports begin entering one of the busiest travel periods of the year, with tourist numbers surging ahead of the summer season.
At the time of writing, neither AENA nor Iberia had publicly explained the cause of the delays.
The scenes come after similar disruption was reported at airports in Malaga and Menorca on Friday, where long queues, delays and overcrowding sparked anger among travellers at the start of the busy weekend getaway.
As previously reported by The Spanish Eye, passengers at Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport complained of extensive waiting times at security and passport checks on Friday, while holidaymakers in Menorca Airport also described scenes of confusion and congestion inside terminals.
