The Hume family from Leeds woke extra early on Sunday morning to leave their Italian ski resort for Milan Linate airport. Due to chaotic enforcement of the EU entry-exit system, they watched their plane depart without them – with more than 100 other passengers left behind. After easyJet staff said the family would have to pay £330 to be rebooked on the next available flight five days later, they spent over £1,600 for a connecting flight via Luxembourg – which will see them arriving 24 hours late. Of the 156 passengers said to be booked on easyJet flight 5420 to Manchester, it is believed only 34 boarded – leaving 122 behind in Italy.
Mr Hume, a teacher in West Yorkshire, said that after checking in their luggage, the family arrived at passport control at 9.15am. At the time only a handful of passengers were ahead of them, but as a gate had not yet been assigned for the Manchester flight, staff said they could not get their passports checked. Passengers booked on other 'non-Schengen' flights on Sunday morning – two on British Airways to Heathrow, and an easyJet flight to Gatwick – were allowed through passport control. His wife nearly passed out in the heat, while a fellow passenger was sick into a bag. It appears that at least some of the passengers who made it onto the Manchester flight had simply lied and said they were going to London in order to be allowed through passport control.
Finally the Manchester passengers started to be processed, with frontier officials demanding fingerprints and facial biometrics from all travellers – even though they had been collected on the way into Italy a week earlier. The EU entry-exit system rules stipulate that once both biometrics have been registered, only one should be taken on subsequent arrivals and departures. EasyJet said it is 'sorry for any inconvenience caused' and that stranded passengers will be offered free transfers to alternative flights.
On their outbound journey from Manchester, Max Hume, 56, his wife Lynsey, 46, and their 13-year-old son Archie had queued for over an hour at passport control on arrival in Italy. Heeding advice from easyJet to allow ample time, they arrived at the terminal nearly three hours before their flight back to Manchester was due to leave.