Yahoo Finance Malaga Airport chaos as Britons stuck in queues amid passenger revolt
Watch: Malaga Airport chaos as Britons stuck in queues
British holidaymakers arriving at Spain’s Malaga Airport faced chaotic scenes on Sunday night as their sunshine breaks began with endless queues and a passenger revolt.
Angry Spaniards were filmed shouting “Fuera fuera” - “Get Out Get Out” in English - amid reports passengers had knocked down barriers to leave the arrivals area as astonished travellers from the UK looked on.
Witnesses claimed on Monday that frustrated travellers had taken matters “into their own hands” after being forced to wait “forever” to be waived through by police and other officials checking passenger locator forms.
Jim Ramsden, one of the Britons who posted footage of the chaos on social media, said in response to questions about claims it was exuberant teenagers returning home from a trip away: “It was arrivals at 11.30pm last night and it was all nationalities who just got fed up standing in a queue that wasn’t moving.”
Traveller Mejulie Traynor, who was also in the queue, added: “I was there too but I behaved myself and queued for an hour.”
Another Briton caught up in the late-night chaos branded the scenes “crazy.”
The noise levels appeared to catch many Britons by surprise.
One was overheard muttering under his breath as he watched the passenger revolt: “They’ve given up waiting haven’t they? People are just going for it.
“Shall we join them? Am I going to get shot by a Spanish policeman if I do.”
Several officials appeared to be trying to restore order by blowing their whistles amid the tourist surge at the airport, one of Spain’s busiest passenger airports at this time of the year.
Another witness, Rachel O’Shea tweeted a video of the long queues, writing in a sarcastic message along the footage: “Welcome to Covid screening @MalagaAirport” before adding: “Minutes later people knocked down the barriers. Absolute carnage.”
Spaniards could be overheard shouting, in reference to the complete lack of social distancing: “There’s no Covid here is there!” and “Shame on you” in an apparent rage at officials processing the health forms.
There was no immediate comment from airport chiefs.
The chaos came on the back of ongoing problems at London’s Heathrow Airport.
A pregnant woman was said to have fainted on Sunday as families with babies were forced to queue for up to five hours during a fifth day of Heathrow chaos amid issues with eGates.
Malaga Airport, officially Malaga-Costa del Sol airport since June 2011, is the gateway to the popular Brit sunshine getaway of the Costa del Sol which is also home to hundreds of thousands of British expats.
It is the fourth biggest airport in Spain after Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.
Watch: Queues at Heathrow so long pregnant woman fainted are 'unacceptable', Home Office says
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