British tourists travelling to Spain could be caught up in passport que delays for up to five hours, should the UK exit the EU with a no-deal Brexit, according to consumer group Which?.
Popular EU destinations such as Tenerife and Alicante, could see an extra 90 seconds delay at passport control this could add an additional 201 hours additional immigration checks, Which? Said.
The research conducted by Which? Found that 43 per cent of passengers arriving at Alicante are from the UK, Alicante is also one of six Spanish airports in the top 10 for UK arrivals.
Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Ibiza, Lanzarote and Tenerife South are the rest of the airports making up the other five.
The consumer group said there is concern as the to date the Spanish government have not announced how they intend to check immigration checks.
For a full flight of UK passport holders Which? Calculated a single passport lane could take a staggering five hours to process.
According to official Spanish tourism data, 45m Brits visit Spain every year. The Office for National Statistics and the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica said in 2017, there were 296,000 Brits over 65-years, who had been living in Spain for more than 12 months in 2016.
It is thought there are almost 1m Brits either living in Spain or are Spanish residents. The UK was home to an average of 116,000 Spanish people between 2013 and 2015.
Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel said, “Airports can be chaotic at the best of times, but if additional checks at passport control in Spain, Italy and other popular EU destinations are implemented in the event of a no-deal, it seems that very long queues are going to be an unwanted side effect.
“Until there is a deal, or these airports announce simpler arrangements, you should consider what you may need if you have to fly to them, as it is very likely that you’ll be in a queue for several hours.
“Make sure you have food, water and essentials for kids like nappies to hand.”
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