To consider cancelling my holiday because of the EES?

Surprised you’ve not mentioned there being no fuel as a reason not to go yet OP!

@idontwanttogoanymore i panicked about this also. I was flying from Gatwick on bank holiday Monday with easyjet. I arrived just over 3 hours before my flight to Spain and thought I'd have to wait for bag drop to open, but went over to easyjet bit and they were open already. There were also no queues at security and the passport business was fine, again no queue. There was a person helping with the initial bit. When we left Spain, the return was just as easy. Hopefully you'll be fine. As pp have said Ryanair will be aware. Also in Turkey last year, we were stuck in traffic to get to the airport and arrived with 20 minutes before our flight! Every one was in the same situation (president visiting or something and roads closed etc) no one missed their flights as all airlines were aware and held them til their passengers were through. Very delayed, but at least we got home! You'll be fine.

It can’t be impossible otherwise Ryan Air would have an empty plane each time.

I’ve been to Majorca over half term. Myself and my older son were sent through the automated gates - no delay. My OH and DD were sent to the under 12’s lane and had to wait about 35/40 mins. It just meant that the luggage was coming out at the same time as they were, there was no extra delay as me and DS were just stood waiting for luggage rather than waiting in the passport queue for the same amount of time.

No queues at all on the way back (either in Majorca or UK). We had landed, gone through passport control, got the luggage and left the airport in under 30 minutes.

OP that is NOT the Ryanair website. That is an AI answer cobbled together from five different websites, some of which might be old Reddit pages for all you know.

You'll get much more reliable information about Ryanair from Ryanair themselves

If you don't do it's because of your own neurotic choices not anything else

I was in Milan 2 weeks ago, it took no time. Arriving took about 5 minutes longer, leaving about 10 if that. We flew Ryan air. It was absolutely fine, no problems, no drama, as easy as before. Just an extra step as you walk through. It was well organised, easy to follow. Id seen the same and was stressed before we went, people missing flight etc, but i think theres been a handful of hiccups that have been blown out of proportion by the media. It certainly wasnt my experience.

At least try to go. I wouldn’t cancel but would take reasonable contingencies, such as perhaps taking hand luggage only, getting to the airport early, and taking out insurance. If you do take hold luggage pack stuff which wouldn’t be the end of the world to lose and insure your case.

In reality 99% of people will be fine, you’re just hearing about the worst cases. Plus what is there to lose in trying if you don’t check luggage in?

Apart from the obvious that is the OP is being completely ridiculous and unreasonable, can I just say Ryanair is an extremely well-run airline. Yes, it’s no frills. That’s why they can provide lower prices. But their safety levels, processes, app etc are all really good. I never understand the Ryanair bashing on MN - literally one of the safest airlines out there.
On that note, a passenger who isn’t travelling is offloaded and if there’s a checked in bag, it’s searched for and offloaded too. It’s a pain in the arse but it’s a security requirement. If it travelled by accident (rare) then it would initiate a security investigation. If a passenger travels and the bag gets left behind (more common) then the bag is sent ASAP after and is called a “rush bag” and is screened multiple times to ensure it is safe to travel.
OP, I don’t think you have been fair to people who have tried to help you here. Go, don’t go. Whatever. You will be absolutely fine if you go. But you probably need to address the anxiety/anger.

The queue you will face arriving or leaving is so dependent on the number of flights arriving from UK in the hour or two before yours. If there’s only a couple of flights a day you’ll be grand. Pinch points have been places like Faro, Milan and Lisbon where they have tons of flights daily.
The news of passengers being left behind are isolated incidents but they are widely publicised, so scaremonger. It’s a bit like violent crime which goes down year over year but we think it’s way worse than it’s ever been.

Sorry but you don’t realise how easy you have it travelling alone.

Imagine trying to take young kids who are trying to run around everywhere because standing in a queue is boring. Babies screaming because they are hot and overwhelmed by the noise.

I have an autistic child who would have a meltdown waiting in a queue for hours. I’ve decided flights are out of the question for us at the moment as the stress wouldn’t be worth it.

In my experience brexit hasn’t changed anything for my travel insurance, other than the EHIC card being replaced by one that covered more countries, called the GHIC card. Neither of those Isi tended to be comprehensive travel insurance though. What has brexit changed for you that has increased your travel insurance?

I’ve been to Venice and Alicante airports in the last 2 months, absolutely fine. Friend has been to Milan last month, also fine. You are being unreasonable.

So you're encouraging solo travellers to find a reason to book assisted travel by finding some spurious reason? I believe you're soon going to have to have a medical assessment to book assisted travel. The sooner the better.

Travel very light and dont check anything in?

My friend just eent to croatia and said there were no qurues at all and it took ten minutes. I expect the queues are more likely in the crazy hotspots like southern spain.

Why are you so determined to ignore all the people who are telling you that delays are not a problem currently, and that even if there are delays when you go Ryanair will let you drop your bags off early and help you catch your flight?

Flew back from Copenhagen last week and honestly it was pretty bad, but DH kept reassuring me it would be fine and it was. We got to the airport three hours before our flight, and didn't have bags to check in. Got through security fine but then had to wait ages for our gate to be announced, and there's multiple different passport controls depending on gate so we couldn't have gone any sooner. The machines are not operational yet. The queue was over an hour and we ended up having to be rushed through (along with the majority of the flight) well after the time that boarding was supposed to close. It was stressful for everyone and the easyJet staff were apologetic when we finally boarded. I just wanted to give a slightly different perspective to all the many people saying it's fine and there's no need to worry. It is a total pain in the bum and some airports are clearly not managing the situation as best they could. Had the gate been announced earlier we could have avoided the stress, as we had done the recommended three hours, but it gave us no advantage at all.

Hopefully they are learning lessons and the machines will help when they're up and running. OP I think it's fine to worry a bit but just do everything you can do and trust that they aren't going to let an entire plane miss their flight - the staff will do their best to rush you through if required. It's disproportionate to cancel the trip.

This was my experience too. And with Ryanair - although I paid for Fast Track security, so I got through that bit very quickly.

We travelled home from Sicily yesterday.
We arrived at the check-in desk 3 hrs before our flight as we knew EES could be length. Desk however did not open until 2 hrs before flight (British Airways).
We went straight through security and on to the EES passport control. Line was very long and system incredibly slow! Lots of people would have missed the flight but the pilot decided to wait and agreed not to fly until everyone was on the plane. We were lucky they made this decision.

I think all airlines need to open their check-in desks 3 hrs before flights to prevent this from happening.

I go to Europe a lot. YABU

Why can’t you just pack a carry on? I never travel w a suitcase unless am with my child and need all the kid paraphernalia. Saves so much stress!

Also for security reasons the plane cannot take-off with your bag onboard if you are not on the plane, they have to go remove it from the hold. If you make a flight and your bag doesn't, it can travel on a later flight alone, but it can never go ahead of you. I travel quite a lot and have been on multiple flights where they've had to remove people's luggage, not usually budget airlines but scheduled airlines definitely happens. Your bag would go back to baggage collection and you can pick it up.

I think you should do some work on yourself. This has nothing to do with the holiday. You clearly have some issues with anxiety. We can’t control what goes on around us only ourselves and the fact you are astute enough to be aware that you need to be there early is enough. Most people won’t even be aware and those are the ones at the back of the queue. I travelled recently and wasn’t aware. Everything was fine and I had a 15 month old toddler with me.

You have to be able to tolerate a certain amount of uncertainty to function in every day life or you won’t be able to live at all.

We are off to Rome soon. Can I ask if you have any tips for the system?!