Lisbon airport passport delay

[m0mkat]

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Further information tothe posts regarding delays at Lisbon Airport for arrivals from non Schengen countries

Alert:  U.S. Embassy (Lisbon, Portugal) (June 13, 2022)

 ​

Location:  Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado International Airport   



Event:  Significant Delays at Passport Control for Arriving Passengers



Unscheduled strikes by inspectors from the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service (SEF) at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado International Airport, and other staffing issues, have caused delays of four hours or more for passengers arriving from outside of the Schengen area (including from the United States) to clear passport control.



Those arriving in Portugal should prepare for long waits. Food or water may not be available in the airport’s non-Schengen arrival hall.



Actions to Take:

• Monitor local media for updates.
• Be aware of your surroundings.
• Pack food, water, medication, any items needed for infants and young children, etc.

Assistance:



American Citizens Services, U.S. Embassy, Lisbon, Portugal

Emergency during Business Hours: +351 21-727-3300

Emergency outside of Business Hours: +351 21-727-3300 

Email:  conslisbon@state.gov

Website:  https://pt.usembassy.gov/ 

 

[Heather1]

Oh, that’s really terrible. Thank you for posting this.

 

[mwendt]

Not much you can do, unfortunately.

 

[WalkingJane]

Good to be prepared. If you want, you can register with the US Embassy that you are in the country and when you will leave.

 

[YYC on the go]

I see this was on your US Embassy website. As a Canadian, I will be arriving in AMS first before transferring to a flight to Lisbon. Just curious if there are any other reliable, and up-to-date sites we should be monitoring?

 

[trecile]

I see this was on your US Embassy website. As a Canadian, I will be arriving in AMS first before transferring to a flight to Lisbon. Just curious if there are any other reliable, and up-to-date sites we should be monitoring?

I follow a Travel Portugal Facebook group, and there have been numerous pictures and posts about huge crowds and multi hour waits to clear immigration when leaving the Lisbon airport for months now.
I guess that I was lucky because I was through in about 15 minutes after my flight that arrived in the afternoon back on May 4th.
I think that there are possibly more flights arriving earlier in the day that make the crowds worse before noon.

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

​

Further information tothe posts regarding delays at Lisbon Airport for arrivals from non Schengen countries

Alert:  U.S. Embassy (Lisbon, Portugal) (June 13, 2022)

 ​

Location:  Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado International Airport   


Event:  Significant Delays at Passport Control for Arriving Passengers


Unscheduled strikes by inspectors from the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service (SEF) at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado International Airport, and other staffing issues, have caused delays of four hours or more for passengers arriving from outside of the Schengen area (including from the United States) to clear passport control.


Those arriving in Portugal should prepare for long waits. Food or water may not be available in the airport’s non-Schengen arrival hall.

I don't know if this helps or not, but the border service has just allowed Canadians and Americans to join the automated gates for passport control at Lisboa Airport...

Passengers off US, Canada flights can use e-gates at Lisbon airport

Measures are announced after long queues and hours of waiting have been recorded by passengers arriving in Lisbon off flights from outside the European Union.

econews.pt

Bom caminho!

 

[Former member 95219]

I don't know if this helps or not, but the border service has just allowed Canadians and Americans to join the automated gates for passport control at Lisboa Airport...

Passengers off US, Canada flights can use e-gates at Lisbon airport

Measures are announced after long queues and hours of waiting have been recorded by passengers arriving in Lisbon off flights from outside the European Union.

econews.pt

Bom caminho!

Interesting. Don’t know if it may become permanent. I Think at LHR, USA, Canadians, Australians, New Zealand and a few more nations can can use egates along with EU folks..

 

[Walkalong]

More people need to be warned about Lisbon airport. 5+ hours trapped, like sardines. Never fly into Lisbon again. There were 3X more people administering first aid than 2-3 people checking non-EU/EEC passports, and many times more security and airport staff herding us into the bottle neck. Never again.

 

[LavanyaLea]

I see this was on your US Embassy website. As a Canadian, I will be arriving in AMS first before transferring to a flight to Lisbon. Just curious if there are any other reliable, and up-to-date sites we should be monitoring?

If you first entered the Schengen area in Amsterdam, then you would be in the Schengen zone… so you won’t need to pass another border/immigration check in Lisbon. You will still have to queue/wait for your luggage if you have any checked luggage, I don’t know what the situation is with luggage handling.

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

More people need to be warned about Lisbon airport. 5+ hours trapped, like sardines. Never fly into Lisbon again. There were 3X more people administering first aid than 2-3 people checking non-EU/EEC passports, and many times more security and airport staff herding us into the bottle neck. Never again.

I hope this is a bit of a "one-off" bad weekend. Heathrow, in UK, also seems to have had a particularly awful couple of days. It sounds as if many European airports are having problems with shortages of staff right now just as everyone starts travelling for their summer holidays.

Please don't write off Lisbon forever because of this bad experience. They are already trying to rectify it...

Minister threatens dismissals if Lisbon airport suffers further arrivals’ hall chaos - Portugal Resident

Minister threatens dismissals if Lisbon airport suffers further arrivals’ hall chaos: SEF borders agency warns ‘that’s not the answer…’

www.portugalresident.com

 

[Former member 88968]

More people need to be warned about Lisbon airport. 5+ hours trapped, like sardines. Never fly into Lisbon again. There were 3X more people administering first aid than 2-3 people checking non-EU/EEC passports, and many times more security and airport staff herding us into the bottle neck. Never again.

This may sound like a daft question but what time of day did you arrive? We are scheduled to arrive there at 19:30 in 6 weeks time. I'm hoping that in the evening there is less traffic through the airport!!

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

This may sound like a daft question but what time of day did you arrive? We are scheduled to arrive there at 19:30 in 6 weeks time. I'm hoping that in the evening there is less traffic through the airport!!

19:30 should not be as bad, I don't think. Keep in mind that everyone in Portugal has a usually leisurely lunch between 1300 and 1500 (somewhat of an exaggeration but not much). So arrivals anytime between 12:00 or so (getting you to immigration by about 12:30, by which time they're thinking about lunch) till about 16:00 (clearing the backlog that may have occurred through lunch, during which they are more likely to be short-staffed) will be slower.

We try to fly red-eyes and arrive first thing in the morning from North America. There is rarely much of a queue then. Keep in mind that a lot of continental flights, for business, etc., will be arriving late morning and into early afternoon. Evening calms down, as well.

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

I see this was on your US Embassy website. As a Canadian, I will be arriving in AMS first before transferring to a flight to Lisbon. Just curious if there are any other reliable, and up-to-date sites we should be monitoring?

This might help a bit, just to see when the highest density of non-EU flights are arriving. Keep in mind that this will also include South America (with significant number of flights from Brazil), Africa (with flights from Portuguese-related countries Mozambique, Angola and others), and the rest of the world...also the UK (England, Scotland) since Brexit...

Chegadas em tempo real | Aeroporto de Lisboa

Informação em tempo real do estado das chegadas no Aeroporto de Lisboa. Saiba a situação dos voos e acompanhe atrasos e cancelamentos.

www.aeroportolisboa.pt

 

[Bristle Boy]

I'm afraid that the problems highlighted in this thread are not just restricted to Lisbon. The problems will exist this year, in some shape or form, due to staffing issues. This is a hangover from the shutdowns over the last few years and the actions taken by both the Airlines and Airports.
What is seen is the very visible side of airport life. Behind the scenes is a multi-faceted operation that makes a flight possible. That shortage of staff is felt by every discipline and company involved.
To turn on the tap for this business when it has been effectively mothballed for two years is almost impossible to do.
There are many reasons behind this staff shortage for which the Airlines/Airporrs do not escape responsibility. Not enough consideration was taken that, whilst in a state of hibernation; there would be a natural reduction of staff through retirement but also all businesses learnt that it was more advantageous to make staff redundant whilst the pandemic was at its height. Many of these staff have found alternative employment or chosen not to return to this sector.
I don't expect Airline travel to resemble normality until next year at the earliest.

 

[Walkalong]

We landed and deplaned on time at 11:10 AM, March 31. News coverage and Consulate warnings confirm that herding trapped tourists like sardines is an ongoing problem. Fortunately virtually everyone was wearing their mandated masks properly.

While flight scheduling could reduce the problem, it does not appear to be an infrastructure problem. Staff shortages due to Covid might explain it. However there were lots of first responders (very busy treating people), police, security and airline employees, but only 2-3 agents checking passports while 3-4 others sat idle most of the time at the EU/EEC gates.

It took authorities taking until June 22 to enable non-EU/ECC passengers to use all gates - a common practice at many other EU airports who welcome tourists. Could it be management incompetence?

Tourists have choices - never again.

 

[YYC on the go]

If you first entered the Schengen area in Amsterdam, then you would be in the Schengen zone… so you won’t need to pass another border/immigration check in Lisbon. You will still have to queue/wait for your luggage if you have any checked luggage, I don’t know what the situation is with luggage handling.

Duh.... Forgot about that. Thank you. It's been soooooooo long......

 

[Corned Beef]

More people need to be warned about Lisbon airport. 5+ hours trapped, like sardines. Never fly into Lisbon again. There were 3X more people administering first aid than 2-3 people checking non-EU/EEC passports, and many times more security and airport staff herding us into the bottle neck. Never again.

Looks like JFK on a pre-Covid day. There is not the same issue if you travel either side of the summer period.

Mass tourism is the new hell. The new Istanbul airport is reportedly designed for 200mn/annum.

Once fully completed by 2025, the airport will have six sets of runways (eight in total), 16 taxiways, and a total annual passenger capacity of 150 million passengers. If fully expanded to a capacity of 200 million,