The Tourism Board calls for an urgent solution to airport overcrowding

The Bureau of Tourism in Spain has called on the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to assume “his responsibility in the situation of chaos that is being experienced in the Spanish airports with more international traffic ”. Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife Sur, Málaga and Valencia are experiencing long queues at passport control checkpoints.

In Barajas alone, the Spanish airport with the most international traffic, more than 15,000 passengers of the Iberia company have missed their flights since March due to this cause, according to the Spanish Tourism Board.

“The situation is repeated in the other airports mentioned and are already thousands and thousands of passengers affected throughout the country because of the repeated inactivity of the Ministry of Interior, which depends on the allocation of police manning at airport controls”, denounces a statement from the professional association.

The desperation and the anxiety spread among passengers, who see how their flights take off and they continue on the ground, waiting to be attended at passport control. “It is something totally unacceptable, which is & aacute; generating a huge disorder as & iacute; as serious problems for all añías aéreas”, señala Juan Molas, president of the Bureau of Tourism of España.

Both this entity and the Asociación de Líneas Aéreas (ALA) already sounded the alarm during 2021 repeatedly about similar circumstances.

The Bureau of Tourism rejects as “nonsense” that Grande-Marlaska insists on denying that queues or significant delays are occurring at airports “ when the images á genes disseminated by the media, sadly, speak for themselves í alone”.

The association has contacted the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, to request her mediation.