Holiday chaos for Brits as families face losing thousands for cancelled trips over passport chaos
BRITS are facing losing up to £1.1billion on their holidays because of the huge delays with the Passport Office.
This works out to £2,400 per family, meaning many could be left devastated about missing their holidays as well as out of pocket.
As many as 9.5million applications are expected to be made this year, after millions of passports expired during the pandemic.
An average 559,000 passports were printed a month in 2019, but this dropped to 329,000 in 2020 and 402,000 and 2021.
The huge demand for applications had led to many families waiting much longer than the usual 5-6 weeks to get their passports back.
The government has since changed the advice warning Brits to leave more than 10 weeks to get their passports back.
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And a study by The Centre for Economics and Business Research has estimated that families have just a 50 per cent chance of a "succesful and timely" passport renewal.
It said: "Assuming that passport holders are somewhat more likely to have travel plans than the population as a whole and that a quarter of those will have made a booking leaves just under one million holiday makers at risk due to the delays.
"Multiplying the resulting number of passports at risk with the average cost for a family holiday of around £2,400 suggests a cumulative loss of over £1.1 billion."
The government website currently warns: "Customers can also help to ensure there are no delays with their application, such as using a high quality photo with a digital code, applying online and applying for a new passport more than 10 weeks before they are due to travel."
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Despite this, many families were left disappointed after the Fast Track website also crashed last week, with no appointment available.
And an employee said the Passport Office phone line, which also stopped working for many, was a "shambles".
One woman told Sun Online Travel how she had to miss her £3,000 Spanish holiday with her family due to the passport backlog.
A heartbroken aunt had said her family's £10k holiday to Menorca faces being ruined as her five-year-old niece's passport still hasn't arrived.
And another couple could be forced to cancel their £40,000 wedding thanks to the continued chaos.
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And a Passport Office worker has warned that application delays are only going to get WORSE this summer.
The staff member, who remained anonymous, told that the delays are only "going to get worse" this summer, adding the current delays are the "tip of the iceberg" of problems.
