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The anticipation of airport travel can turn into frustration. Credit: RossHelen via Canva.com
The summer in Portugal is a time to escape. There are already long queues at airports as the holiday season begins. The delays at the border control are making many getaways feel more like gridlock. One airline was fed up with “Ryanair”. Parents are traveling with their children, hundreds of passengers have missed flights, and those with early check-ins would normally expect sunshine and not stress. Ryanair has publicly urged Portugal’s newly-formed government to act before there are any more delays or cancellations this summer.
Pressure at the border
It’s not the runways that are the problem, but the lines you have to follow after landing. Portugal’s airports are divided into three main areas: Porto, Faro. LisbonBorder control delays are building up. Some passengers are stuck in long lines, which would be considered unreasonable by most. They can wait up to two and a half hour to clear passport control.
This is not an isolated incident. Around 270 passengers missed their flights in the last two weeks (May 26th and 9th) due to delays at passport controls. Ryanair has released these numbers and is calling out ANA Portugal airport operator.
As summer approaches, the tourism industry in the country is suffering from the ripple effects of mounting frustration.
It’s even worse that this was a case that could have been prevented. There are no delays, but the demand is increasing, the staffing shortages and system failures are causing problems at the last gate. Not the passengers pay the price.
Ryanair’s appeal to intervene
In a public announcement, Chief Operating Office Neil McMahon labeled the Portugal situation as unacceptable and warned that if political intervention is not made the current border-control crisis may spiral even further.
It’s not a lack of planning that is the problem, but rather a failure in Staffing. The airport operator ANA is blamed for failing to prepare its staff and border post for the summer influx. As passenger traffic increases in the summer, critical checkpoints are left understaffed.
The human cost is evident when parents are stuck in line with their children crying, travellers miss connections and people arrive early to find themselves waiting in long security queues that barely move.
The frustration of Ryanair has now been turned into a political issue by the newly formed Portuguese government. The airline wants to intervene at an intermediate level in order for additional agents to be deployed before the peak season.
Beyond the queues
Portugal’s airports are experiencing more than flight delays and immigration lines. It’s about perception, which is harder to repair once it has been damaged.
It is important to note that for a nation heavily reliant on tourism it has a lot of attributes. 15% of the GDP It could not be more unfortunate. As the holiday season approaches in Europe, headlines have changed. Instead of seafood and beaches, they now include missed flights and long waits at passport controls.
Airlines are experiencing a logistical nightmare behind the scenes
- Rebooking
- Customer complaints
- Compensation claims
If nothing is done, this carrier could start to reconsider its summer routes from Portugal. These queues are just a symptom. But the real danger is that it will damage Portugal’s image, which has, for decades, been viewed as a sunny, welcoming destination. The country is in danger of breaking under the weight of its own success.
Avoiding summer crisis
Portugal is now asking itself not if there is a border control problem, but if there is still time to fix it.
Ryanair has raised the alarm after hundreds of passengers failed to make their flight between May 26th – June 9th. This number is likely to rise as July, the peak travel month, approaches. Every day that passes without a solution increases the difficulty of recovery.
The newly-formed party government should be willing to intervene and treat border personnel as a national issue, not a back office matter. Once the summer has passed, neither will the passengers, who will opt for a more convenient destination the next year, return.
Portugal has it all: demand, climate, infrastructure and yet, its first impression is a disaster. The skies are open and the runways are free. If the queues at airport control continue to grow, the bottleneck will not be in the sky, but right at the gate.
