Furious holidaymakers were left queuing late into the night at Stansted airport in chaotic scenes at border gates.
Travellers arriving at the airport late on Monday night were welcomed by queues stretching out of the passport control hall.
Families, many with young children complained of being forced to wait for hours to get through.
An estimated 5,000 passengers queued to get through shortly before midnight, with no immediate explanation as to what caused the delay.
One woman said she believed it was because all of the e-gates were down.
Travellers who missed their connecting trains home complained on social media about the “appalling queue management” at the airport.
One angry passenger tweeted a picture of hundreds of people waiting to get through the passport barrier, writing: @STN_Airport - landing at midnight to a 45min queue for passport control to get home is not cool! Not expecting these people I presume?”
And another wrote: “Surely there has to be a fast track queue for British Citizens with toddlers? #brutal.”
One holidaymaker said he had been queuing for 20 minutes and had not even reached the hall.
He said the thousands of restless passengers were just told the reason for the delay was “high volume”.
Monday night is a busy time at the airport, with many budget passengers getting cheap off-peak flights arriving late into London.
The target time for queues at Britain's borders is 25 minutes for people with EU passports and 45 minutes for people from outside the EU.
UK Border Force has been contacted for a statement.
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