Visit Portugal confident new taskforce will reduce airport queues

The president of Visit Portugal says he is confident a new taskforce will dramatically reduce long queues at Lisbon and Faro airports within the next three months.

Carlos Abade, speaking during World Travel Market in London, said the government had pledged to bring in more trained staff and install more electronic booths at border controls after reports of long queues, particularly at Lisbon airport, over recent months.

Portugal began preparing for the introduction of enhanced security as part of the introduction of the new Entry-Exit System (EES) from October 12, starting with Lisbon and Faro airports. Porto is likely to be the next airport to introduce the EES checks.

Abade said: “Queues have already got much better than they were but we were not satisfied with it and that’s why the government has brought in an action group focused on solving these issues.

“Our goal in the next few weeks is to reduce the average time in airport [security] to 30 minutes and to not more than 75 minutes at peak times to get through border controls. In the next three months, we want to reduce this to 20 minutes, and a maximum of 55 minutes.

“We think these goals are realistic. It means increasing the number of people working at the border controls, the process and how people are working, and investing in more machines. We are doing all that and more people are being trained to deal with the machines and improve connectivity between our airports and our security services.

“I am really confident that that we will accomplish these goals; it’s necessary because people’s experience of Portugal starts at the airport so we want it to improve.”