Passengers waited two hours for passport control at the airport in Faro

Arrival at the Airport of Faro of hundreds of passengers, this Tuesday, June 25th, around midnight, turned out to be a nightmare. The landing, almost simultaneously, of four aircraft from the United Kingdom caused long queues in the passport control area, where there were only two employees of the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) and the electronic verification system was not functioning.

According to the Sul Informação, the fog that fell, on Tuesday night, over Faro led to landing delays, causing around 700 passengers from four aircraft to head to the control zone at the same time.

The situation caused long lines, as only two SEF employees occupied the checkout booths: one for all passports and one for European Union passports. The result was that some had to wait more than two hours to see their document checked.

Some passengers, upset by the situation, filed formal complaints at the Airport of Faro, and the Sul Informação had access to one of them.

In addition to the waiting time, families with children were forced to use taxis to reach their destination, since the services of space shuttle they did not wait for the stranded passengers.

The same happened with passengers who had car reservations at rent a car companies and who, because they did not show up in good time, when they arrived at the pick-up points, the rental agencies were already closed.

SEF, contacted by Sul Informação, confirmed that there was 'a delay of four flights in arrivals at the Airport of Faro».

Despite stating that this happened "for reasons other than those", this entity said that the "control of approximately 700 passengers was carried out in just one hour, between 23:30 and 00:21".

According to the same source, the reinforcement of SEF inspectors for the summer period, in the Algarve, has already arrived. In total, another 15 inspectors were transferred to the region to deal with the increase in tourists.

A source from ANA Aeroportos also confirmed the situation, but so far the company has not responded to the questions raised by our newspaper.