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ARCHIVED - Brexit and staff shortages result in 5,000 missed flights a month in Spain
500 extra police will be drafted in to passport control in airports all across Spain this month
Since Britain left the European Union, passengers travelling between the UK and Spain are subject to more stringent airport passport controls, a lengthy process that has resulted in huge delays and thousands of missed flights in recent weeks. On top of the logistical problems caused by Brexit, the Asociación de Líneas Aéreas (ALA) claims that there are not nearly enough police officers manning the security checks, particularly at Spain’s biggest and busiest airports.
Over Easter, around 3,000 travellers were grounded at Madrid Barajas airport, where the ALA says only 75% of passport control positions are filled, compared to 93% in pre-pandemic 2019. As a result, according to the airline Iberia, some 15,000 passengers have missed flights since March 1, a huge proportion of them UK travellers.
The Ministry of the Interior, however, has vehemently denied these claims, insisting that there is no airport crisis and that in fact, passenger numbers are still down compared to two years ago. Nevertheless, it has announced that 500 extra passport control staff will be deployed to airports across Spain from June 20, which should alleviate matters somewhat.
Madrid, which has seen most of the disruption, will benefit the most, with 189 extra police officers; Barcelona’s El Prat will get 89 while Palma will have 50 extra officers. The other 172 troops will be distributed among nine other airports: Valencia, Malaga, Alicante, Tenerife South, Menorca, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria.
The ministry also denies that Brexit is contributing to the chaos, stating that British tourists are still fast-tracked through security and passport control more than any other non-EU passengers, a sentiment that will surely be disputed by the hundreds of UK passengers who queued at Spanish airports for hours last weekend while EU travellers “sailed through”.
Several airlines have asked the government to make an exception this summer and allow UK passengers to use the automatic e-gates to “keep them moving,” as has already been done successfully in Portugal, but no response has yet been received from the Ministry of the Interior.
In another blow for travellers, the airlines have reiterated that if passengers miss their flights due to disorganisation at the airports they are not obliged to issue refunds; however, the majority will endeavour to get their customers on another flight.
Countless passengers from the UK have been left stranded in recent weeks as British Airways, easyJet and TUI have been forced to cancel hundreds of flights due to staff shortages, while Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has suggested drafting in the army to reinforce the current security personnel.
Image: Archive
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