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A lack of staff at passport control has led to hour-long queues as UK tourists flock to the Costa Blanca
British holidaymakers are being met with hellish hour-long queues at Alicante-Elche Airport due to critical staff shortages at passport control as travel chaos ensues with delays and flight cancellations causing major disruptions.
And the National Police union JUPOL has warned of "further chaos this summer" with only a third of the 47 reinforcement posts offered to handle the influx of UK and other international tourists in Alicante currently filled.
A lack of foresight by Spain's Ministry of the Interior to deal with an "avalanche" of British holidaymakers arriving on the Costa Blanca following two years of the Covid pandemic has been blamed for the delays.
Post-Brexit, UK visitors are no longer EU citizens and must show their passports, but a shortage of National Police officers to check non-EU documentation means that "at certain times of the day" queues can be excruciatingly lengthy both in departures and arrivals.
Costa Blanca hotel employers' association (Hosbec) has argued that more should have been done earlier to avoid the chaos, claiming "the authorities were warned, we stressed a few weeks ago that if measures are not taken the problems will get worse".
On Wednesday June 8, Aena scheduled 50 flights to and from Alicante airport carrying a total of 9,000 British passengers, some with only half an hour's interval between them creating huge bottlenecks of people queuing at passport control.
Airport management has repeatedly requested reinforcements highlighting the fact that during high season, 45% of holidaymakers who arrive at the airport are from the UK.
And although there have been no major incidents, aside from the arrest of a Brit who jumped the queue, airport sources are also warning that if measures are not taken, "the months of July and August could be very conflictive" as tensions rise.
However, the Ministry of Interior has played down the problem, claiming that "despite being obliged to go through passport control, the inspection carried out is minimal".
It has pointed out that British citizens enter Spain through the same automatic controls as European citizens, although they have to go through a special queue and with the corresponding stamp on their passport.
And the Ministry has assured that "the number of police personnel at these controls is sufficient despite the volume of British citizens who, since the approval of Brexit, have been going through the inspections corresponding to countries that do not belong to the Schengen area".
On the contrary, JUPOL claims the border control is totally "overwhelmed" with just 16 additional officers recruited for the summer season.
"They (the government) are trying to solve a problem with a patch at zero cost," blasted David García, provincial secretary of JUPOL, pointing out that "it is a matter of urgency that reinforcements are recruited".
With around 7 million passengers expected to arrive at Alicante Airport between June and October, of which 2.7 million will come from the UK, the union says more travel chaos is on the horizon.
Image: Twitter
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