Macau, China, Dec. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The secretary of state for infrastructure has said that "no one can be happy with the passenger experience at Portuguese airports today," a situation that goes beyond the issue of border controls, while the country's airports managing company, ANA, points out the constraints it faces.
"Obviously, we have an issue at the borders [queues] and we are working intensively with ANA to redesign the departure area to make it easier. But - I used to be a very frequent passenger - no one can be happy with the passenger experience at national airports today," said Hugo Espírito Santo, in Macau, on Wednesday.
The secretary of state was speaking at the 50th National Congress of the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT), after the audience heard the chairman of the board of ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal remind them that Lisbon airport has 36 million passengers and was designed for 22 million.
"We are in the process of constantly improving the facilities. (...) It is a permanent open-heart operation," said José Luís Arnaut, referring to constraints of various kinds.
Both had already mentioned the queues for border control as a serious problem in Lisbon.
The secretary of state says that this does not justify everything.
"I think that, in addition to everything we are doing [in terms of improvements], we have airports that are cramped, with narrow corridors, with the wrong indicators in terms of quality of service, even in terms of baggage delivery," he warned.
"We have repeatedly had some issues with waiting times at X-ray machines, with passengers with reduced mobility (...). And we currently have enormous problems with waiting times. We also have to look at and remember that this is not just a problem with passports and borders. We also need to look at and rethink what quality of service means at airports. And this is something that we [the government] and the national civil aviation agency, ANAC [the regulator] have been insisting on, together with ANA, in order to really make a qualitative leap forward here," he explained.
Hugo Espírito Santo pointed out the need to always keep safety in mind in this sector.
"I look at the safety data that NAV [air traffic control] and ANAC give me. In short, it leaves me with some concern. These are machines that are working very close to their limits, so I do have some concerns," he said.
Earlier, the secretary of state had assured that the executive is monitoring the queues at Lisbon airport "very closely", admitting that they are an embarrassment for the Government, which hopes to have resolved the issue by the summer.
"The situation at the borders is an embarrassment for the government. There is no other name for it. We have to be humble about what we do, and right now, it is an embarrassment, and the only thing we can do is apologise," he said.
He added that the causes exist, have been identified and solutions are being evaluated, praising the help that ANA has given in the situation.
"We are currently monitoring this issue very closely. We have five ministers directly involved, we are looking at the data on a day-to-day basis to see how long it takes to get through border control in Lisbon (...)", he added.
Hugo Espírito Santo pointed out that "the root" of the problem "is clear" and is related to "the lack of public security police officers", compounded by "a difficulty and instability from a technological point of view, especially at the “e-gates”’ and, thirdly, "a slowing down of the system".
The challenge, he said, is to have the situation resolved by June.
"It's a very serious problem, which is beyond our control," José Luís Arnaut had said earlier, noting that, just as ANA is required to meet minimum service requirements in its concession contract, the same has been attempted for public services, such as borders, but it has never come to fruition.
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