Those arriving at Lisbon airport, the main gateway for travelers arriving in Portugal, have faced even longer queues than usual. Last Sunday (12), Brazilians reported waiting more than three hours to get through immigration.
The delay in the migration process, which has already reached a peak of five hours, occurs even after the Portuguese government implemented a plan to reduce queues at airports. The waiting hours — in an area where there are no services offered and travelers have practically nowhere to sit — have also caused many passengers with connections to other destinations to miss their flights.
Images of long lines and reports of irritation have been circulating on the networks. The situation results from the combination of insufficient resources in passport control with a high flow of passengers.
Responsible for immigration, the SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service) attributed Sunday’s problem to the number of tourists who disembarked simultaneously in the morning. According to the agency, about 3,000 passengers arrived in the period, which “generated sharp delays in border control”.
Brazil and the USA were among the origins of the aircraft that landed in a short period of time at the time. In general, only flights from other European Union countries are not subject to passport verification – travelers with passports from EU nations can use automatic checkpoints or fast lines, while others need to present themselves to immigration agents.
The Brazilian with Italian citizenship Bruno Rossi quickly passed through the border control, but waited more than three hours to meet his girlfriend, who does not have a European document. “I saw that the line was long, but I didn’t think it would take that long. As she had no battery on her cell phone, we couldn’t talk to each other. people in the same situation,” he said.
In a statement, ANA (Aeroportos de Portugal) stated that it tried to minimize passengers’ discomfort by providing water and reinforcing the assistance team. The company attributed the delay to “insufficient resources and border checkpoints in operation” and said it had alerted the competent authorities about the situation. The problem at Lisbon airport was detected even before the official start of the European summer, which starts next week and marks the peak season on the continent.
At the end of May, already facing long lines at immigration in the Portuguese capital, the Ministry of Internal Administration announced a contingency plan for airports. The initiative, although already up and running, will not become fully operational until July 4th. The government expects an 82% increase in the number of personnel at air border posts across the country.
The Minister of Infrastructure of Portugal, Pedro Nuno Santos, already admits that Lisbon airport may start refusing flights in the future due to overload. “This year, not yet. In the next one, we will very likely reach, we hope, the same flow as before the pandemic, and then we will start having this problem again”, he said, this Tuesday (14), to the Lusa news agency. .
With Covid, plans to build a new airport in the capital were put on hold. The expressive recovery in the volume of tourists, however, is already causing the issue to return to the country’s political agenda.
