Madrid, Spain – An unprecedented situation unfolded today, July 2, at Adolfo Suárez-Madrid-Barajas Airport. In Terminal T4, thousands of travelers endured hours-long queues at passport control, leading to approximately 500 passengers missing their international flights. The drastic situation, which occurred after check-in and before boarding the shuttle train to the satellite terminal, caused significant frustration among those affected.
AENA and National Police Comment: Staff Shortages and Technical Issues as Causes
The airport operator AENA confirmed the incident but initially denied a complete collapse, speaking of “high passenger traffic.” Later, AENA admitted that the delays were due to staff shortages. Around 11:00 AM, a peak travel time for international flights, half of the control desks were unstaffed. This resulted in average waiting times of 60 minutes.
Concurrently, the National Police, responsible for passport controls, stated that a “specific computer incident” in conjunction with an “accumulation of flights” in a short period caused the problems. This explanation aligns with the observations of many passengers who saw very few manned checkpoints. By approximately 2:00 PM, the situation gradually began to ease.
❗️✈️ De Renfe a Barajas, CAOS y desbordamiento:
— 𝙻𝚒𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚡 (@The_Libertax) July 2, 2025
Cientos de pasajeros estan perdiendo sus vuelos por un gran colapso en los controles de pasaportes en la T4 de Barajas.
Óscar Puente te dira que los aeropuertos viven su mejor momento. pic.twitter.com/i0MTNusYkG
Focus on Non-EU Flights: Only International Travelers Affected
AENA emphasized that the massive queues exclusively affected passport controls for non-EU flights. Travelers on intra-European flights were therefore not impacted. The company assured active cooperation with the National Police to prevent future bottlenecks. However, AENA limited its own responsibility, stating that their cooperation was confined to controlling transit areas to prevent stairwells or corridors from collapsing.
Current Travel Season and Growing Passenger Numbers in Barajas
The incident occurs amidst the peak of the summer travel season and just one day after a railway chaos that affected over 300 passengers near Madrid. Spain is currently experiencing strong tourism growth. In May of this year, Adolfo Suárez-Madrid-Barajas Airport recorded 5,734,394 passengers, an increase of 1% compared to the previous year. In the first five months of the year, a total of 26,851,060 passengers were handled by this airport, 3.5% more than in the same period last year.
Given these rising figures, it is clear that AENA and the responsible authorities must urgently adapt their infrastructure and staffing plans to cope with the growing volume of travelers. Although AENA recently announced additional investments in Spanish airports, Barajas is not yet included in these measures. It remains to be seen how passenger numbers will develop in July and what conclusions will be drawn from today’s incident.
