SEF says there will always be queues and waiting times at airports

SEF admitted today that there will always be queues and waiting times at airport border posts on certain days of the week, but that the teams will work to improve the situation.

Chief Inspector José Aleixo was speaking today at Lisbon airport following the entry into force in the capital of the contingency plan that provides for more human and electronic resources at national airports.

“The flow of passengers is always high, there will always be waiting times and queues, but we are working to improve”, said José Aleixo, adding that today there was a reinforcement of four people in the morning shift and there will be four more in the afternoon. .

The SEF chief inspector said that between 5:20 am and 9:00 am today, 20 flights arrived with 4,000 people.

National airports will have a reinforcement of 238 staff of the SEF and PSP during the summer months, 82% more than the current staff at border posts, according to the contingency plan presented on Tuesday.

The national director of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), Fernando Silva, indicated that this reinforcement of human resources will be gradual and will be stabilized on July 4th.

In total, Portuguese airports will have 529 people to carry out border controls for passengers coming from flights from countries outside the European Union.

In addition to the reinforcement of SEF inspectors from all over the country, this plan has 168 PSP agents, said Fernando Silva.

The contingency plan for the national air border posts for the months of June to September, presented to the Ministry of Internal Administration, also includes several technological solutions for Lisbon Airport.

The contingency plan started on Thursday at Faro airport and today in Lisbon, coming into force gradually and at the end of the first half of June it will be operational at the six airports.

Lisbon airport is the one that will be reinforced with more staff, with 102, increasing to 241, followed by Faro, with 45 more operational staff, will have 104 staff, and Porto, which will have 48 more staff, out of a total of 89.

In turn, the airport of Funchal will have a reinforcement of 24 staff, increasing to have 48 employees in the summer months, the airport of Porto Santo, will have one more member, in a total of four, and the one of Ponta Delgada will have 11 more elements, totaling 24 personnel involved.

The technological solutions will be implemented at Lisbon airport, namely through the creation of a mobile control team reinforced with ‘SEFMobile’ technology (mobile app for border control developed by SEF) and the development of a pilot project for early control of borders, through a pre-registration system by passengers.

From Diário Notícias