Now Barcelona airport staff strike to exploit border queue misery of British sunseekers
BRITISH tourists faced fresh misery last night after staff at one of Europe’s busiest airports tried to exploit the EU passport chaos to win an industrial dispute.
There were delays of up to three hours in Barcelona as protesting border staff deliberately took up to ten minutes to process each passenger.
It led to huge queues for UK holidaymakers at passport control – following a week of disruption across Europe as the EU introduced new border checks.
The cynical plot by staff at Barcelona airport was exposed after one of those involved in the row over pay and conditions was caught boasting on tape by Spanish media.
Genoveva Sierra, of the workers’ committee at security firm Eulen – which runs the airport’s passport control – was recorded saying: ‘If there are no queues everything is lost. If there are queues, everything is won … We call the shots.’
Border staff also held hour-long strikes throughout the day which will be repeated tomorrow, next Friday and the following Sunday.
Jenny Drury, from Manchester, wrote on Twitter yesterday: ‘Finally arrived back in England 8 hours later after hideous delays in Barcelona airport.’ Hannah Roome tweeted: ‘Security mayhem at Barcelona airport. How can it get so bad!’ And Twitter user @rainforestflour posted: ‘Ryanair Hey! 22 people were not allowed on flight home from Barcelona airport yesterday afternoon. Plane left almost empty [by] security queue.’
It follows chaos at EU airports after more time-consuming border checks for travellers from outside the Schengen zone led to huge queues. EU countries have been criticised for failing to recruit extra border guards for the change.
The situation is expected to worsen this weekend, one of the busiest of the year, with around ten million people due to fly in and out of Europe. EasyJet and BA have texted customers returning from Europe warning them to turn up earlier than usual. Ryanair is advising passengers to arrive at least three hours before departure.
However, some Spanish passport control officers were accused of ‘giving up’ as they waved through hundreds of passengers without checking their passports properly.
Travellers who had braced themselves for delays at Palma airport in Majorca and Malaga yesterday said they passed through border control alarmingly quickly.
Phil Jones, 34, of St Albans, Hertfordshire, flew into Palma yesterday. ‘We handed our three passports over and he just looked at them,’ he said. ‘He didn’t even scan them.’ The EU rules had caused hour-long queues there during the week when guards took up to five minutes on each passenger.
Colin and Jacqui Picton, 60, flew to Palma from Manchester. ‘It was absolutely chaotic when we arrived here last Sunday,’ Mr Picton, from St Helens, said. ‘I don’t know what security have been doing different today but we sped through.’
Arrivals in Malaga were stunned when they were waved through by a solitary guard. A flight from Gatwick saw around 210 let through without handing over passports.
Ryanair stewardess Vanessa Berroti, 30, said: ‘Because of the new rules they are supposed to check every person’s passport but sometimes it can get very busy and they choose to just let people through.’
Lynn Austin, 49, of Southend, said an officer did not check her photo, adding: ‘I could have been anybody.’ Another tourist said passport staff ‘gave up completely’ and stopped imposing checks when he flew into Malaga this week.
Aage Duenhaupt of Airlines for Europe, which represents BA, Ryanair and Gatwick, said: ‘We are still expecting huge queues if there are not more border control officers or authorities do not find another way to process passengers quickly.’
Brussels officials accused the UK of inappropriately ‘complaining’. A European Commission spokesman said: ‘You can’t have a joint request to have more checks … to increase security and at the same time complain about longer waiting times.’
It emerged Theresa May, as home secretary, pushed for ‘systematic’ checks despite attempts by some EU countries to make them more targeted to avoid big delays.