The closure of the automatic filters causes queues at the Madrid aerodrome between 10 and 12 in the morning | The Ministry of the Interior denies “categorically” that queues or delays in controls are taking place
Long lines at T4 of the Madrid-Barajas airport this Monday morning on account of the police passport controlaccording to airline Iberia. The main user of the Madrid ‘hub’ denounces that the automatic control shutdown of passports has caused large queues to access the terminal and the delay of some flights. Specifically, it was between 10 and 12 in the morning, always according to Iberia’s version, when there were problems with passengers on flights to Miami, Chicago and Buenos Airesin which 100 people were missing 10 minutes before the departure time of the plane that was delayed to wait for these travelers.
Although the problem this Monday has focused on the automatic control machines, which were closed, according to Iberia, the main Spanish airline assures that “since before Holy Week there are few troops National Police” at the Madrid airport, which has led to the loss of 15,000 connections since March 1. For their part, sources from the Ministry of Interior “strongly deny that are being produced queues or delays at passport controls in Spanish airports & rdquor ;, some police filters that, they say, “are dimensioned with respect to the passenger flow”. These same sources even assure that this type of information is “cyclical news What are they fed in an interested way & rdquor ;.
The connecting passengers they account for about 30% of Iberia’s traffic at the Madrid airport and about half of international flights, according to airline sources. The minimum time required for these passengers, between the arrival of one flight and the departure of the next, varies from between 45 and 55 minutes in the case of connections with the airline itself within Terminal 4 or, failing that, from T4S and 165 minutes for any other company that connects with an Iberia flight from any terminal.
At the end of March, the Airline Association (ALA), an organization that brings together companies that add 85% of air traffic in Spainalready warned about a congestion problem in the passport checks and urged the Home Office a increase the number of troops police in those airports with higher density of international traffic to guarantee a “fluid traffic” in the face of Easter and the high summer season. In that case, the request from the airline employers came after detecting a “worrying saturation” in the border filters of the Malaga airportwith waits “until an hour and a half”.
According to ALA, “since last summer” the aerodromes of “Málaga, Alicante, Tenerife Sur, Madrid or the airports of the Balearic and Canary Islands” have experienced problems of saturation on controls passport holders who have been charged especially for the departure of United Kingdom of the European Union after Brexit, which has given it the qualification of third country who is he first issuer of tourists to Spain and, therefore, requires these travelers to carry out the relevant passport control upon arrival in Spain.
The president of ALA and also general director of EasyJet for Spain and Portugal, Javier Gandarahas claimed in a video that reinforce the “provision of police at border controls at airports” to avoid those queues, or that “exceptionally, just like Portugal, this summer it will allow British travelers could use the automatic machines of passports used by community passengers” in order to “avoid giving a bad image of our country to all the tourists who visit us”.