'Think twice before coming to Spain': British tourists queue for two hours at passport control

Brits have been warned not to travel to Spain after holidaymakers queued for two hours to get through passport control at Malaga airport on Tuesday. 

Giles Ford, who flew in from London Heathrow on Tuesday morning, said ‘people should think twice before coming to Spain’ after the ordeal. 

The two hour wait came after tourists were made to complete nearly three hours of Covid-19 admin, including uploading test certificates, to be allowed to board the flight. 

‘I definitely would not want to go through all this again for a short holiday to Spain, I would only do it if I was coming for a couple of weeks, if not longer’, Ford said. 

Queues were seen stretching around 500 metres down the airport’s corridors as hundreds of holidaymakers arrived at the airport for summer holidays on Spain’s Costa del Sol.  

Spain requires arrivals from the UK to present a pre-travel declaration form and either a negative Covid-19 test or proof of vaccination. 

The process takes two to three hours of admin, according to Ford, and costs more than £150 for two PCR and one lateral flow test.    

Ford was towards the front of the queue after landing in Malaga around 12:30pm CEST, but said hundreds of holidaymakers soon piled onto the queue behind him, clogging up the airport. 

The line snaked up and down the corridor, reaching at least 500 metres in length before he was waved through, Ford added. 

‘The checks themselves were quick but it took ages because there were only three border control officials and they were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people waiting.’ 

It comes after Malaga airport staff announced plans to strike on August 12, potentially adding to the travel chaos. 

Over 100 security guards said they would strike over the alleged non-payment of 800 euro bonuses, Euro Weekly News reported.   

Malaga saw an influx of passengers last week as Spain started to welcome back holidaymakers.

The airport saw 1,640 flights land between July 26 and July 30 – more than 80 per cent of the number in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.   

It comes after it was claimed ministers are preparing to streamline international travel traffic rules by scrapping the ‘green watchlist’ and the ‘amber plus’ category.

The travel industry welcomed the move but immediately pressed the Prime Minister to go even further as they called for the current system to be axed completely and replaced with a single ‘red list’ of banned countries.

Ministers have made clear they intend to stick with the red, amber and green approach to categorising countries but travel experts believe the more complicated categories are set to be ditched. 

Spain is currently on the amber list, meaning a pre-departure test is required and non-vaccinated people have to quarantine for 10 days at home and book tests on day two and day 8. 

The fully-vaccinated do not have to quarantine but they do have to book a day two test. 

Spain is the UK’s most popular overseas destination with 18.1million people visiting the country from the UK in 2019.