The French controlled operator of Portugal’s airports has come up with a solution to the two-hour queues to get through passport control at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport ANA.ANA has decided it will stop releasing data on waiting times and is to prohibit the sharing of any information relating to the queues.
The president of the union representing Foreign and Borders Service inspectors said this attitude is "unacceptable," adding that information is a company obligation.
The reaction by ANA’s management comes after news today that tourists, especially those coming from the US, Canada and China, or from other flights outside the Shengen area, can expect waits of two hours to get through passport control. (HERE)
In an e-mail sent to various government departments, ANA said that the media had got hold of sensitive date on processing times at border control so ANA will stop sending out information.
Union leader, Acácio Pereira, points out that the information on waiting times is not some sort of favour granted from Vinci Airports Group (owner of ANA) to the Portuguese Government and to the SEF.
Pereira commented, “It is an obligation that the Vinci Group has with the Portuguese State in the ambit of the airports concession. Portugal is not a Banana Republic where a company can suspend sending information that it is obliged to send just so so it can hide its responsibility in the delays that harm the country, due to its lack of investment in the airports, that is its obligation."
The union leader spared no criticism of ANA, even though one of the problems is the lack of SEF passport control staff, "When we talk in the airport queues, these queues are, in essence, a guarantee that we are meeting the safety criteria, but we also have to realise that these queues also are derived from structural issues."
Pereira said that, "Lisbon airport does not have the proper structure, it is old, it does not even have separate Shengen and non-Shengen passenger streams."
ANA, says Pereira, "has not been able to respond" to this problem. "It has mainly valued profit to the detriment of security and the flow of the passengers."
