Travel guru Simon Calder has revealed how you can avoid the passport backlog to ensure your holiday goes ahead.
During a segment on This Morning, hosted by Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, it was revealed 400,000 people are waiting for passports to come back, forcing some to miss their holidays.
However, Simon Calder revealed that number could "just the tip of the iceberg" as thousands of Brits look to try and rescue something of the holiday season.
You can see Simon's advice, including how you can travel to EU until December 31, the video above.
Appearing via live stream from Venice, the travel expert revealed why passports expire:
"Why do passports have expiry dates at all?... Of course, Children's appearance changes even more, which is why young people are so pesky, under-16s, their passports change every five years.
"It's so crucial, as soon as the programme is over, go and check those expiry dates."
When drafted onto the point of the backlog by Eamonn, Simon said: "It is so awful. That 400,000 that we've been hearing about is only the tip of the iceberg.
"I identified this problem as soon as we went into lockdown, four months ago.
"There has not been a full passport service ever since."
Simon then revealed how you can avoid the backlog to make sure you get on holiday:
"What the Home Office, which runs the passport service, is saying is, 'If you don't need one, please don't apply.', but refuses to give This Morning any idea on how long it's going to take.
"Some good news is that if you're doing a straightforward renewal, for a kids or an adults passport, it should, or some people are telling me, it's only taking 10 or 12 days.
"All I can say is that if you're going somewhere within Europe, you don't need at least six months on your passport, that's until at least the end of the year."
This Morning returns at 10am every weekday morning.
