Spain’s Tourism Board demands ‘chaotic mess’ at holiday airports is sorted out

The worst impacted airports are said to be Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife Sur, Málaga and Valencia, which are all key travel hubs for tourists during the summer months

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Palma: Chaos as large queues form at airpot

Urgent action is needing to sort out the “chaotic mess” at Spain’s holiday airports including Tenerife, Mallorca and Malaga ahead of the summer season, tourism chiefs have said.

They argue that the “unacceptable” scenes – many of them showing Brits stuck in long queues – are ruining Spain’s image and denting its tourism revival.

Industry leaders are calling on the Spanish government to act with speed while Spain’s Tourism Board says it cannot believe there are politicians who are downplaying the situation.

“It is something totally inadmissible, which is generating enormous disorder, as well as serious problems for all airlines and, as if that were not enough, the image of Spain as a tourist destination is being obviously and gratuitously damaged,” Juan Molas , president of the Spanish Tourism Board, said.

“How is it possible that a leading country in tourism consents to this?”

The worst airports are said to be Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife Sur, Málaga and Valencia.

“They have to endure the unfortunate spectacle of passengers queuing for hours,” the Tourist Board said in a statement before blaming a lack of staff on passport control.

The Tourist Board has voiced particular outrage after the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said there weren’t any queues at the airports.

“That is nonsense,” said Mr Molas.

One of the videos showing queues at Barajas airport was posted by deputy spokesman for Tourism of the Popular Party, Agustín Almodóbar.

The Popular Party has urged the government to speed up airport processing by adopting measures introduced by the Portuguese.

In Portugal, Brits are being treated as European arrivals as they were before Brexit, meaning they can get through controls much quicker.

Both the Association of Air Lines (ALA) and the Tourism Board of Spain said they sounded the alarm in 2021, on repeated occasions, about airport chaos due to shortage of staff, but nothing was done.

“At the gates of the 2022 summer season, in which we play so much because we need to overcome the pandemic – and without tourism we will not do it- we find that the minister continues to turn a deaf ear to a problem which has an easy solution,” Mr Molas said.

The Tourism Board has asked the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, to intervene with urgency.