en 
Faro airport today. This is the Brexit you voted for. #BrexitHasFailed pic.twitter.com/ZzqznPsdSt
— Paul F (@fitzy73london) March 31, 2024
This situation does not appear to have improved with passengers telling The Portugal News that “massive queues” at passport control continue at the airport this morning.
A report from the Daily Mail alleges staff shortages and “lack of information from airlines”.
A report from CM stated that police put the disruptions down to a “peak in passenger arrivals”.
“The PSP had all available staff working, with all document control booths open. But it took a while to let passengers on flights that arrived in the morning”, said the police source.
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It’s not brexit. It’s the black of staff and planes all landing within minutes of each other. BA and Radyjet both land within 10 minutes of each other. That’s without the other uk destinations landing around the same time. If they spaced the flights out more the queue wouldn’t be as long
By Linda Harrild from UK on 01 Apr 2024, 18:13
On Easter Sunday there were only 2 immigration officials handing EU arrivals and 2 handling non EU arrivals. The airport and immigration officials would have had advance knowledge on incoming flights and numbers of passengers so it should not have taken them by surprise. It was extremely dangerous in there due to the volume of people if anyone had fallen particularly on the stairs there would have been fatalities. We understand this is a common occurrence so no one is learning from this or doing anything to remedy it. It's the last time we will becoming to Portugal, and will be advising other to do the same. The way we were treated was a disgrace.
By Paul Pendleton from Algarve on 01 Apr 2024, 22:10
My wife spoke to the police and they said they wouldn't do anything.
By Paul Pendleton from Algarve on 01 Apr 2024, 22:15
I wont be returning as to wait 3.5 hours with small children was just ridiculous so clearly you want to discourage tourists, well its worked with me!
By kevin King from UK on 02 Apr 2024, 10:22
I fully agree this is not all due to Brexit , the authorities know well in advance what is coming and should be prepared, the Algarve, in particular, relies on tourism and this is a disgrace. I doubt any of the long standing automatic controls were operational, another disgrace.
The immigration authority is totally understaffed, we have been waiting to get an appointment to renew our residence for 18 months now, there are never ANY slots available. Portugal, please address this dire issue!
By John Parsons from Algarve on 02 Apr 2024, 10:36
There is no excuse for queues at Faro airport. They know exactly how many planes are landing and what time. People will not come back to Portugal, I certainly wouldn't if I had to queue that sort of time. Its been a problem for many years, and it needs sorting as Portugal needs tourist and this is not helping. When are they going to get thus problem solved. The person in charge should be sacked and replaced with someone who understands what is going on.
By Michael Taylor from Algarve on 02 Apr 2024, 11:49
This is a major embarrassment to the Airport and the Portuguese authorities. The problem is that it is not just a one off and nobody seems to take any responsibility. The least we can do as passengers is to make a complaint.
By Meeshdude from Algarve on 02 Apr 2024, 11:59
They should have booked speedy boarding!
By Stefan from UK on 02 Apr 2024, 15:00
Can someone at the paper please advise all where we can write to complain about this treatment of Uk travellers,it is getting out of control and no one is doing anything about it,all concerned are just paying lip service with total inaction
I travel regularly to my home in the algarve and witness this complete lack of urgency for uk citizens,nearly half the country did not vote for brexit and I wish the authority’s concerned take some action now not to wait until the summer months where it will be a disgrace if action is not taken,
They are going to wait until travellers take action and look for more amiable country’s for vacations.
Please display the person and authority we can all write too.
Very disgruntled algarve traveller.
Tom mcavoy
By MeV Tom Mcavoy from UK on 02 Apr 2024, 20:08
One incident and everybody wants to boycott the country? All airports experience issues from time to time, even those in the UK.
By Colin Morfitt from UK on 03 Apr 2024, 09:13
As the Algarve needs the money we bring into there economy they should treat us better , Mange your airport better & don't have 2 or 3 non EU flights arriving at the same time .Nothing has changed at this airport for the last 4 years , EasyJet only have one flight a day from Manchester & it's an evening flight so you are tired when you arrive & then you face long queues .Often the EU desk has no passengers going through, at this time they should process non EU passengers .I think it's very dangerous to have that many people stuck in a small area , if a fire broke out it would be bedlam .
By Marie Musa from Algarve on 03 Apr 2024, 10:33
Another Brexit dividend.
By David from UK on 03 Apr 2024, 11:04
Maybe a bit late to reply but myself and my son are in that awful queue and it was horrendous screaming children, old people looked to be struggling in the long que, bottles of water in plastic lying about nobody was told they were there and to help yourself ! Felt like we were cattle in a cattle market utter chaos, not what you need after jus getting off a 3.5 hr flight in cramped conditions only to wait dame amount of time again. I won't be returning sadly hurts and last time for me.
By Angela Davie from UK on 03 Apr 2024, 15:33
email for airport: : faro.airport@ana.pt
By fi sweetland from Algarve on 04 Apr 2024, 21:26
Arrived in Faro on Sunday 7 April and could not believe the queue for passport control. There was absolutely no control by airport staff who clearly didn’t give a damn and it was really worrying for families with small children. It took over an hour to get to the end of queue and eventually they decided to open the EU booths to non-EU travellers to ease the problem . Baggage claim was also bad as the conveyor was jammed with cases and although Jet2 staff had reported this nothing was done. We are well into our seventies and are dreading the journey back as we will have to queue three times for check-in, security then customs and could miss our flight as a result. This problem has obviously existed for years as I have seen comments from as early as 2016 indicating similar issues. I do think Brexit has probably contributed to this but the main causes seem to be lack of staff, very poor organisation and too many flights arriving/leaving at the same times. Airlines claim they are not responsible for customers missing flights because of these issues but surely they could put some pressure on the airport management to improve the situation, especially as the complaints go back years and nothing has been done about it. We find air travel has become more and more stressful in the last few years but the chaos at Faro is by far the worst we have ever experienced and no one should have to spend their holiday worrying about what might happen at the airport on the return journey!
By Richard King from UK on 09 Apr 2024, 17:30