Ryanair acknowledges that there are long waits for passengers at Lisbon airport, but points out that the same thing happens in other European Union (EU) countries due to lack of staff, and sees a solution at Montijo airport.
There are a lot of problems in the travel experience because of the lack of workers,” but “Lisbon is no different from many other airports in Europe at the moment,” Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary said in an interview. with Agência Lusa in Brussels. .
In Brussels for meetings with Belgian unions and for discussions on the new rules for the European Union’s emissions trading regime, Michael O’Leary told Lusa that also in countries like Germany, Ireland and Belgium are experiencing problems like those at Lisbon airport because “they have few personnel in the management and security of the airports”.
“That is why they have long security queues and the number of employees must be increased,” he defended.
The responsible estimate is that “the number of employees will improve during the next month or two”while acknowledging that “there are many bottlenecks in airport security and handling at many airports in Europe”.
In an interview with Lusa, Michael O’Leary pointed out that the Montijo airport construction project could be a solution because it would allow for more infrastructure to receive passengers.
At a time when Portela airport is full and we cannot get any additional space to grow there, the growth of Lisbon and the recovery of tourism in Lisbon and Portugal in general is being held back by the inability of the Government to move forward with the Montijo, which now has the support not only of the airlines, but also of ANA,” the official said.
And he criticized: “However, we are still waiting for the Portuguese Government to make the decision to proceed with its action.”
This Monday, at a press conference, the Immigration and Border Service (SEF) assured that the long queues at the Lisbon airport reflect the exponential increase in tourism and inadequate infrastructure for the number of passengers.
Also in a statement, The SEF justified the reason for the “strong delay” with a peak in passengersthat is, three thousand flights that are controlled by this entity.
In the note released to the press that day, the SEF recalled that the Contingency Plan for Portuguese airports —also implemented in previous years— began on June 2 and will only be fully operational from July 4, when the reinforcement of 238 SEF and PSP The personnel will be complete, totaling 529 elements.
According to the SEF, the three airports with the most human resources in this period are Lisbon (102 more police officers, that is, +73% of the workforce), Porto (49 more, +122%) and Faro (with more than 45, representing a +76%).
Already on Sunday, the entity that manages the national airports, ANA Aeroportos, had warned of the waiting times to which passengers were subjectwarning that they could exceed three hours due to “insufficiency of resources and border control posts of the SEF in operation.”
Source: Observadora
