The Ministry of the Interior is going to reinforce the main Spanish airports, mainly Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas and El Prat in Barcelona, ??with 500 agents from June 20 to reinforce passport control and avoid queues. More than half of the troops will go to Barajas (189) and El Prat (90). The increase, sources from the Interior have reiterated, was already planned but it has become known in the midst of a clash with Iberia due to an alleged collapse in passport controls.
The IAG airline warned yesterday of significant queues and chaos at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. Iberia denounced that a collapse occurred again in the passport control area of ??terminal T4, forcing it to delay the departure of some of its flights.
Specifically, the company’s flights to Buenos Aires, Chicago and Miami (USA) took off with a delay of between 15 and 25 minutes, having to wait for passengers who were trapped at police checkpoints, according to the company. . The closure of the automatic filters caused long queues and crowds in the passport control area between 10 and 12 in the morning.
The airline estimates that about 15,000 customers have lost their connection since March 1, due to crowds and a lack of police officers. Iberia criticized this situation and recalled that 80% of the tourists who visit Spain each year arrive by plane. The problem also affects tourist airports such as Alicante, Malaga, Tenerife Sur or Palma, among others, according to the Association of Air Lines (ALA), which has repeatedly called on the Ministry of the Interior to increase police officers at passport controls. of the airports with the most international traffic.
However, Interior sources categorically deny the existence of such a collapse. According to these sources, neither the National Police, in charge of border control, nor AENA have received any claim in this regard, so they are “surprised” by the data offered by the airline. Claims for missed flights are filed directly with the airlines.
One of the hypothetical causes of this collapse could be British passengers, who after Brexit are no longer citizens of the European Union and therefore must go through foreign passport control. However, these sources maintain that this circumstance had already been contemplated and was counted on.
Despite denying such a collapse, the Interior wanted to remember that in the coming days, new agents will arrive to reinforce these posts. These sources clarify that these places have not been assigned after the alarm raised by the airline but that they were already planned and communicated to AENA.
The twelve airports with the highest passenger traffic in the country (Madrid, Barcelona, ??Alicante, Valencia, Malaga, Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Tenerife Sur, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria) will see their workforces increased at the end of the month by a total of 500 troops. In 2019, in these twelve airports there were 1,456 officials while, according to the Interior, this June these airports will add 1,726 troops.
As for the Barajas passport control, in 2019 it was used by 19 million passengers, with a police staff of 425 officers. This 2022, the forecast is 16 million passengers, but the police force now has 189 more troops.
Ministry sources indicate that this is an increase in the structural workforce, to which, if necessary, specific reinforcements may be added (mobile border unit or service commissions decided by superior headquarters). As for British citizens, the Home Office has requested and obtained permission from the European Commission for British citizens to use the automatic controls (ABC gates), but in a specific queue so that their passports will be stamped at the end.
