Two hour queues for non-Shengen area passengers at Lisbon airport gives a preview of post-Brexit Britain with many international travellers missing their flights.A year ago the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and the French-owned operator of Portugal’s airports, ANA, failed to find a solution to staffing problems.
The chairman of the union representing border inspectors, Renato Mendonça, commented of Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport, that the volume of work has risen 150% in recent years, then a 20% increase in staff will hardly be able to cope, “it’s a mathematical impossibility.”
With the summer tourist high season coming soon, tour operators are alarmed as hour-long queues already have been logged for 17 days in March - four days saw queues of two hours or more.
Many tourists have become desperate and, according to airport sources, "there have nearly been cases of riot because a lot of people are missing their connecting flights." In addition, "for those that have just arrived on very long transcontinental flights, the last thing they want is to spend hours getting through border control."
About a year ago, the SEF announced a rise in the number of inspectors for Lisbon airport and the Ministry of Internal Affairs said it would find a solution with ANA, which manages the airport infrastructure.
But the SEF is fiddling the figures by ignoring maximum waiting times, getting around this reporting problem by presenting ‘average waiting times.’
In the first quarter of this year, according to ANA figures, passenger growth was 16% and, according to TAP president David Neeleman, the company will continue this year to invest in the American market, with the opening of new routes , namely to Montreal, Canada, and San Francisco.
"This is a highly detrimental situation for tourism as it is also the first impression a tourist takes away from a tourist destination," said Francisco Calheiros, the president of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation.
According to Calheiros, "there are 16 SEF booths, many are not always operational. This causes long queues especially when the flow of passengers from outside the Schengen area increases."
According to SEF, the airport has 33 more inspectors than last year. This is a total of 180 but actually is 50 less than last summer.
A year ago, the SEF Inspection and Inspection Career Union dedicated its congress to this theme, complaining at the lack of inspectors and the need for ANA to improve the infrastructure. Its President, Acácio Pereira says today that "as long as the responsible entities fail to sit at the same table, the problem will not be resolved."
