As the Canary Islands prepares for an insufferably busy summer season, despite swathes of local protests, one tiny airport seems to be struggling to keep up with the demand
Brits heading to the Canary Islands have been warned over ongoing chaos in one of its busiest airports. Last year, the archipelago, located off the coast of northwestern Africa, witnessed a staggering 15.5 million international visitors – despite a series of anti-tourist protests ordering holidaymakers to ‘go home’.
According to Spain’s airport magnate Aena, 8.7 million of these tourists entered the Canaries through César Manrique Airport (also known as Arrecife Airport) in Lanzarote.
But, with just one runway and a tiny duty-free area – the hub is edging dangerously close to its nine million capacity. As a result, the airport is often swamped with tourists – who are forced to wait in long queues waiting to get through passport control.
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According to Canarian Weekly, the chaos is being caused by three key issues: staffing shortages, faulty equipment, and an ‘inadequate passport control area’. All of these factors are creating a ‘bottleneck at one of the island’s main gateways’ – despite promises to improve the airport.
Last month, the Spanish National Police said it was ready to deploy 45 new immigration officers to the aviation hub. As previously reported, this would effectively ‘double the workforce’ in the area and make passing through passport control a complete breeze.
A spokesperson for the Canary Islands said the much-needed upgrade had been recommended for several years now – and warned that the new staff members should be exclusively assigned to work on border control duties. However, local media claims only 11 new immigration officers have actually been deployed – and only two of them are actually working in the passport control section.
Oswaldo Betancort, the president of the Lanzarote Cabildo, has slammed the worsening situation, branding it ‘a joke’. “I will be sending a formal letter from the Presidency to the Government Delegation to get clarity on this issue. We will not stop fighting for Lanzarote,” he said.
It paints a bleak picture for Brits heading over to Lanzarote during the busy summer period. Tourists are likely to have a similar experience as the Mirror’s Discover Editor Victoria Chessum – who witnessed the airport’s carnage last year.
“On arrival to the airport we had been informed numerous flights back to the UK had been delayed due to poor weather and visibility – something no one can help,” she explained. “But the impact of this at Arrecife was dire – with no place to sit, let alone stand, while queues of people attempted to get food, or even reach their gate.
“When we decided to brave one of the long lines for dinner, we were made to wait an hour for our order to simply be handed to my husband, who then spent around 10 minutes trying to get through swarms of people to find us. We had reluctantly perched on the end of someone’s table.”
Victoria isn’t the only person with a negative review of the airport – which has amassed a slew of one-star ratings on Google. “I was waiting in the queue for bag check / boarding pass for an hour,” one person moaned. “The woman at the desk was chatting to other staff the entire time even though there were two long queues of people waiting.” Another branded the hub ‘chaotic and unorganised’.
The Mirror has approached the Spanish National Police for comment.
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