Spain scrambles to tackle massive airport queues as post-Brexit passport stamping adds to woes – iNews

Spain is to deploy 500 more police at airports across the country in an attempt to shorten passport queues at the peak of the tourism season.

The country, like Britain and other destinations, has been hit by lengthy delays, as passengers try to pass. through passport control, but Brexit issues have made the problem particularly acute for Britons, who must now have their documents stamped on entry to the country.

Madrid, Barcelona, Palma in Mallorca, Ibiza, Alicante, Tenerife and Malaga are among the busiest airports where extra officers will be stationed, police sources said.

Labour disputes and staffing shortages have left European airports desperate to find more workers before the summer holidays reach their peak.

Airlines have been forced to cancel dozens of flights as they struggle to operate on a skeleton staff.

Workers at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris are striking on Thursday for more pay with a quarter of flights cancelled.

In Italy, crews from budget carriers Ryanair, easyJet and Volotea walked off the job on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, German airline Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings said they were scrapping 1,000 flights in July or 5 per cent of their planned weekend capacity because of staff shortages during one of the busiest periods of the year.

Ryanair cabin crew could strike in Europe this summer after a failure to reach a deal in talks with two Spanish airlines, according to statements from the Spanish trade unions SITCPLA and USO.

Airport managers are struggling to quickly recruit staff and train these new workers amid a huge rebound in air travel after a slump during the pandemic.

Congestion at airports has been blamed on the failure of airlines and airport authorities to take on enough new staff as tourism returned in force after the pandemic.

Airlines, which were losing millions of pounds every day during the pandemic, are depending on a strong summer as fares rise to offset fuel costs.

Some countries, like Spain, Italy and Greece, are banking on tourism to revive hard-hit economies.

In Spain, Iberia Airlines said that 15,000 people had missed their flights at Madrid airport on Monday because of queues lasting up to 40 minutes to get through passport control.

The Spanish Interior Ministry, which is responsible for managing passport control because police check national identity papers, denied this claim, saying it had no knowledge that this number of 15,000 people had missed their flights.

In 2019, a record 18 million Britons travelled to Spain Britains favourite tourist destination but diplomatic sources told i that British authorities are expecting that more holidaymakers will spend time in the country this summer.

However, the difference this time around is that British travellers will have to join the non-EU queues at airports and must have their passports stamped, as tourists can only stay in Spain for 90 out of every 180 days.

This has led to lengthy queues at Madrid Barajas and other airports around the country.

At Barcelona Airport, passengers flying to the United States told La Vanguardia newspaper that they had had to wait for three hours to pass through passport control.

This could have a knock-on effect for British holidaymakers as they must join the same queues as Americans and all other non-EU nationals.

Only Britons who are residents in Spain do not have their passports stamped but still have to join the non-EU queue at the airport.

Despite the extra reinforcements, Jusapol, one of the police unions, said that 500 more officers would not be enough to cope with the huge number of passengers.

Summer is here and there will be a rise in passengers who will take longer to get through the passport and other controls at the airports, said a spokesman for Jusapol.

Javier Gndara, president of the Association of Airlines, has called on the Spanish government to reinforce the passport controls still further.

Tourism organisations were concerned that chaos at airports will damage the image of a sector which accounts for 12 per cent of Spains GDP and was devastated by the pandemic.

Miguel Mirones, president of the Association for Quality Tourism, told i : We cannot allow problems in the management of airport infrastructure to damage the recuperation of tourism demand. We must solve this problem as soon as possible.

Spains government has tried to calm fears of more holiday chaos at airports.

Everything is planned for and Brexit will not be a setback. There is no need for more officers to be deployed, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Here is the original post:

Spain scrambles to tackle massive airport queues as post-Brexit passport stamping adds to woes - iNews