"Despite being in the middle of the peak summer travel season, the Portuguese authorities have not ensured the necessary staffing levels at Lisbon Airport's immigration checkpoints," Ryanair noted. As a result, passengers arriving in Portugal face "unacceptable delays of up to 1.5 hours."
Therefore, Ryanair calls on the Portuguese government to take "urgent measures" to resolve this "ongoing situation" and "ensure sufficient staff presence at border controls to cope with passenger volumes during peak periods."
In a statement cited by Publituris, the low-cost airline states that, "without immediate intervention, further delays are inevitable, which will continue to undermine passenger confidence and Portugal's reputation as a reliable tourist destination."
Neal McMahon, Ryanair's COO, emphasises that it is "completely unacceptable that passengers arriving at Lisbon Airport today are forced to wait more than 1.5 hours at passport control due to the continued staff shortage. At the height of the summer season, Portugal should be welcoming visitors, not subjecting them to chaos and long lines."
Therefore, it concludes, "the Portuguese government must urgently deploy more staff to Lisbon Airport to avoid further delays and protect the country's reputation as an excellent holiday destination."
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I queued for 3 hours beginning of June after arriving on an overnight flight.
Totally unacceptable.
By Ken from Other on 29 Jul 2025, 19:48
I really hope investment in highspeed rail accelerates, so that I can see Ryanair go out of business in my lifetime :)
By M C from Algarve on 29 Jul 2025, 21:38
How does the Portuguese government not realize how badly this is hurting their country? I have flown into Lisbon and then Faro and both times the wait was over an hour? No more for me! I will fly into Spain and avoid Portugal until they fix this problem!
By Joel from USA on 30 Jul 2025, 00:39
Flew to Oporto on the 26th June and had a 3 hour wait for immigration. On the way back we flew from Lisbon T2 and while we didn't have an immigration delay, the Terminal is not fit for purpose, with people having to sit on the floors as there simply are not enough seats and poor pa system.
By John Cummins from UK on 30 Jul 2025, 11:39
It took me over an hour to get through emigration/passport control in Lisbon while waiting for a BA flight to Heathrow in December. I had been warned at check-in to allow 30 minutes to get through passport control. In the end there were over 100 people in the "Other Passports" queue and only 2 desks open.
It took 70 minutes to get through and when I arrived at the BA gate, I was told that I was 4 minutes late and so the bus had gone.
I had tried to appeal to security while we wee in the queue. The security person warned us that if we tried to jump the queue she would call the police.
BA had no sympathy. In fact they said that we would be counted as "no shows" and so we would have to buy another ticket for the next flight and our return flight would be cancelled too. The replacement ticket cost us €700 plus €100 in mobile phone costs to BA in the UK.
To top it all, our luggage was not put on the next plane and we had to wait until the next morning for our cases to arrive.
By Trevor Roberts from Algarve on 30 Jul 2025, 11:53
How DARE these dreadful foreigners treat British citizens like this. Just because we voted for freedom we should be treated with respect and dignity, and waved through border control with a bow from the subservient staff. After all, if it wasn’t for us, you’d all be speaking German now.
By Mark Barber from UK on 30 Jul 2025, 23:16
Paying compensation for every 15 minutes delay after the first half hour would soon sort the problem out. Where are the authorities, when we need them?
By Steve from Algarve on 31 Jul 2025, 08:49