Passport control queues at Palma airport. | Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter

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The president of ALA, the Spanish association of airlines, Javier Gándara, considers “completely unacceptable” the queues at passport controls formed this weekend at T4 and T1 of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport and Gándara has demanded that the Ministry for Interior to take action so that the “necessary resources are available in all Spanish airports to handle the influx of tourists”, at the beginning of the summer season.

Due to the queues at passport control, 1,000 passengers were affected at Barajas T4 this weekend on connecting flights and a total of 4,500 travellers so far in March, said the ALA president.
He regretted that this situation is affecting certain time slots where “there are not enough members of the National Police”.

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As a result, he explained that tourists on intercontinental flights are finding it difficult to catch their stopovers on time due to the long queues at checkpoints.
Gándara warned that “not long from now” the large influx of British passengers will begin, so he said that “by then it will not only be a possible problem for Barajas, but also for other tourist airports such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, Alicante and Malaga”.

“We are asking for the necessary resources to be put in place to be able to meet demand,” he said.
He stressed that in the case of Spain more than 80% of international visitors travel to the country by air: “It is the first perception that tourists who visit us have and that the image is of endless queues or missed connections and this is the last thing we need,” he added.

Airport operator AENA has said that border force is not its responsibility and it is up to the Ministry for Interior to resolve the problem of a lack of National Police officers at key times.