Flight cancellations, excessive queues, saturation... Lisbon airport is facing "
sometimes serious
" problems, the airport manager in Portugal acknowledged on Wednesday.
"
It is true that, in recent weeks, we have experienced problems, sometimes serious (...) but we are working with our partners to try to improve the service
", declared during a parliamentary hearing Thierry Ligonnière, director General of the ANA, the manager of the ten Portuguese airports.
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This hearing of ANA, a subsidiary of the French construction and concessions group Vinci, was motivated by the cancellation of dozens of flights at Lisbon airport in recent days and long queues for passengers.
He was questioned in particular about the situation in Lisbon and Porto, the second largest city in the country and where the queues, in particular at the border control, were disproportionate.
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Strikes and recruitment difficulties
“
Regarding the cancellations that we have experienced at the moment, the answer is rather on the side of the airlines, because they are the ones who decide them
,” argued Mr. Ligonnière.
Since the lifting of health restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, European airports have struggled to recruit staff, while strikes within several airlines have multiplied, leading to flight delays and cancellations.
The problem of the saturation of Lisbon airport and the urgent need to unclog it, due to the tourism boom in the Portuguese capital, has been mentioned for several years.
Last week, Portugal's socialist government announced plans to build a new airport complementary to Lisbon, located at Montijo on the southern bank of the Tagus estuary, before making an about-face less than 24 hours later.
After a discussion with Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos then regretted communication and coordination errors within the government.
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