Severe bottlenecks at passport control at Madrid’s main airport, Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas, caused tempers on to rise on July 2, 2025, as many watched their flight times creep up and other missed flights due to the long lines.
Hundreds of passengers queued amid what the airport called “staff shortages at passport control,” the worst of which occurred in Terminal 4 of the airport. The issues did spill over to other terminals, however they were not as severe, according to eyewitnesses.
The Civil Guard is reported to have intervened to contain the tension with scuffles breaking out among some passengers, according to local news reports. Hundreds of passengers missed their flights according to reports. Some reports implied that the bottleneck was caused by a collapse in passport scanning systems, but airport operator Aena has denied that was the cause and said that the disruption was due to a lack of police personnel. Sources told local media that “half of the passport control posts were empty, resulting in an average wait of 60 minutes to get through security.” One social media post said, “Arrived at the Madrid airport 4 hours before our flight and made it with a little bit of time to have a croissant and coffee. We board our flight and are now stuck waiting on 70 other passengers who are still passing through security.”
Passengers traveling within Spain and the rest of the European Union were not affected by the delays, according to a report in El Pais. “At Aena, we are collaborating with the Police to control the flow of people and prevent it from becoming a situation of congestion,” the operator said in a news report.
“Barajas is normally good but it has become so much more international and sometimes struggles to cope,” said one frequent traveler between the U.K. and Spain. “The situation is compounded by the fact that post Brexit, all U.K. visitors must join the international passport control which compromises its ability to process all of its international visitors (China, India, South America, etc.) especially over the start of the busy summer travel months.”
Spain, unlike the U.K., asks all incoming travelers to process their passport which is where the workload issue is. Spain continues to manually stamp U.K. passports to track how long the person has been in the country. Post-Brexit they have a limit to 90 days in any 180 day period and non-compliance leads to a long ban from entering the country again. It’s very time consuming process at passport control and the U.K. as well as France has one of the biggest influxes of people coming in as many own homes there. The airport is planning to upgrade the system and is plans to go digital soon, sources say.