Ryanair blasts Portuguese government; tells them to take immediate action
Never an airline to ‘hold back’, low-cost Irish operator Ryanair has blasted the Portuguese government over persistent delays at border control at mainland airports that have led to dozens of passengers missing flights.
In a statement released last night, Ryanair called for “immediate action”, explaining that just last weekend delays at the mainland airports were running to as much as 90 minutes.
Between July 11 and 13, Ryanair claims that “more than 120 passengers missed their flights from Porto, Faro and Lisbon airports due to excessive delays at border control” caused by a lack of staff.
At the same time, “passengers arriving in Portugal faced waiting times of up to 90 minutes at passport control,” said the airline, insisting that these “are not isolated cases” and that the “Portuguese Government must urgently resolve these staffing problems, especially during the peak summer season when passenger volumes are at their highest”.
“If no action is taken, delays will continue and more passengers will end up unfairly missing their flights,” said Ryanair, appealing for “immediate action”.
By coincidence, parliament this week approved the creation of the National Foreigners and Borders Unit (UNEF) within the Public Security Police force, with votes in favour from the PSD, Chega, IL and CDS and abstentions from the PS and JPP.
Last month, Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, intimated that the problems with queues at airports should be resolved after the new system comes into operation. At the time, he suggested it would only be a matter of ‘two weeks’.
Ryanair’s appeal follows the successive release of images of long queues of passengers from countries outside the Schengen Area at particularly Faro and Lisbon airports – some of them reportedly lasting several hours.
It needs to be said that these queues are not ‘constant’: there are times when people are pleasantly surprised, and breeze through border control. But the ‘norm’ is to find comments like the following on social platforms (this one relating to arrivals on June 30): “Pre warning ….. arrived at Faro airport from East Midlands at 10.40 this morning …… it’s now 13.20 and we have just got through passport control !!!! Horrendous queues and 2 security men in boxes plus a priority box. Absolute madness”.
Source: LUSA
