Airport manager acknowledges ‘serious’ problems
"We went from a situation where all the planes were on the ground in 2020 to a very dynamic traffic resumption situation," explained the CEO of Portugal's airport manager ANA.
The CEO of Portugal’s airport manager ANA, on Wednesday acknowledged “serious” problems at airports and stressed that the infrastructure manager is working with partners to improve the service, which is producing “very tangible” results.
“It is true, during the last few weeks we have had problems, some of them serious, with some subsystems, one of them border control, which is not directly controlled by ANA, but we work with our partners in an active way to propose ideas and try to improve the service,” acknowledged Thierry Ligonnière, who is being heard in the Portuguese parliament, at the request of the PSD, for clarification on the problems at Lisbon and Porto airports.
Ligonnière added that the work being done with the ministry of internal administration and the Immigration and Borders Service (SEF) has been producing “very tangible results over the last few weeks”, with a “notable improvement in the waiting time at border control since June 18”.
Ligonnière recalled that the summer season is, “by nature, more challenging” for airport management.”
“We went from a situation where all the planes were on the ground in 2020 to a very dynamic traffic resumption situation,” he pointed out.
The hearing takes place at a time when several flights are being cancelled daily at European airports due to staff shortages, strikes and other aggravating external factors, namely weather-related, Covid-19 or unforeseen events.
