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ARCHIVED - Long queues at passport control in Madrid airport spark fears of Easter travel disruption
Thousands of passengers were delayed at the packed security desks in the Spanish airport last weekend
The Easter break is just around the corner and tourists from across the globe are expected to take advantage of the break and fly to Spain for a few days in the sun. But the age-old problem of hours-long passport control queues is rearing its ugly head well ahead of the high season, sparking fears among airline officials of yet another chaotic period.
This past weekend, a lack of personnel meant that thousands of passengers travelling through T4 and T1 at Madrid-Barajas Airport to catch connecting flights suffered massive delays, and if the situation isn’t resolved soon, the Spanish Airline Association (ALA) has warned that these “completely unacceptable” disruptions will be repeated in airports across Spain.
President of the ALA, Javier Gándara, has demanded that the Ministry of Transport act now by ensuring the "necessary resources in all Spanish airports to meet the demand of tourists," before the holiday season begins in earnest.
Given that more than 80% of the tourists to Spain arrive by air, there are simply not enough staff to operate passport control and ensure a smooth operation, a lesson that seems hasn’t been learned after last summer’s debacle, when queues formed out the doors of airports and countless of passengers were forced to stand around for hours while their planes left without them.
For Gándara, the issues will become evident very soon when holidaymakers from the UK begin to arrive, and he fears that "by then it will not only be a possible problem for Barajas, but also for other tourist airports such as those in the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Alicante or Malaga".
The airport “is the first perception that tourists who visit us have and that this perception is those endless queues or lost connections is the last thing we need to continue influencing the recovery", he added.
Image: Iberia
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