Irish tourists heading on early summer holidays in May have been warned about potential airport delays in Spain.
Some of the country's busiest airports reported huge delays over Easter and could come under the same scrutiny as the summer holiday season begins.
Multiple airports in the country saw passengers share concerns about delays, cancellations, overbooked flights and issues with checked baggage.
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Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport was said to be the worst hit by problems according to reports in Spain.
Local media outlet Reclamador explained: “This position may be due, to a large extent, to the very high number of flights that were operated from Wednesday to Monday of Easter Week, with almost 5,000 flights scheduled during those days alone. Only second in number to the second airport in this ranking, Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, which registered more than 5,300 flights by the different airlines.”
Palma de Mallorca International Airport, Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport and finally Ibiza International Airport were all also cited as having issues.
It comes as one airport in Spain has been accused of giving Irish passengers “preferential treatment” with an “express lane” by some British passport holders, as they have no choice but to watch on from a separate queue.
Travellers have been sharing pictures from Malaga Airport which has sectioned off into two separate passport queues. One is sealed off with black tape and signposted with a union jack for ‘all passengers’. The other is enclosed with green tape and shows an Irish tricolour and EU flag while labelled for ‘EU citizens’.
Since Brexit, British tourists are only allowed to stay in the Schengen area (a free movement area without border controls that includes 26 countries including Spain but excluding Ireland) for 90 out of 180 days and must get their passports stamped when they leave or could face being refused entry on another visit.
Meanwhile Irish citizens benefit from EU-wide passenger rights for travel into, out of, or within the EU by air, rail, bus/coach or ship.
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