The works at the Airport of Faro will end in July. The work even caused flight delays, complaints increased, the level of passenger satisfaction decreased, but ANA Aeroportos makes a "very positive" assessment of the operation of the infrastructure in recent months.
Alberto Mota Borges admitted to Sul Informação that "having works of this size in a terminal in operation is not the ideal operating environment", but that "despite dealing with many unforeseen situations on a daily basis, we sought to respond effectively, ensuring the smooth operation and quality of operation at the Airport" .
However, this response was not enough to avoid “some very occasional delays” on flights. According to Alberto Mota Borges, these delays were due to the "inevitable change in passenger circuits".
The arrivals area working in a tent, dust, construction noise, tour operators installed in the car park… This was the scenario faced by many of the tourists who arrived in the Algarve in recent months and this was reflected in the assessment made to the Airport.
“There was a slight degradation in passenger satisfaction and in the perception of service quality, which is considered normal in a process of this nature”, admitted Mota Borges to our newspaper.
According to the official, «the quality of service at the Airport of Faro it went from an assessment in the ASQ (Airport Service Quality) indicators of ACI Europe (Airports Council International) from 3.96, in 2015 to 3.69, in 2017, which are the last data published and related to the first quarter of the year».
Complaints, on the other hand, increased from 129 in the first half of 2016 to 178 in the same period in 2017. However, «most of them are not directly aligned with the works» and, for the responsible, «this is a situation expected and normal within the contingency of the work and in a context of traffic growth».
Whoever arrives at the airport today, finds a different scenario, for the better, than a week ago. The public arrivals hall was reopened last Wednesday, although there are still «punctual works inherent to this phase of completion». These works are, according to Mota Borges, «works of fitout in some stores and should take place in the coming months of July and August».
The director of the Airport of Faro explains that "there are several areas that were intervened during this Airport's development plan and that are already in full operation."
Last year, the Airport of Faro surpassed the barrier of 7 million passengers and, in 2017, the expectation is that «the processing of passengers will continue on the rise», concludes Mota Borges.
See photos of the current state of the Airport of Faro by Ana Madeira/Sul Informação:
Comments