Lisbon, Oct. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - Ryanair called on the Minister for Infrastructure, Pinto Luz, on Thursday to ensure that border control at Lisbon airport is "properly staffed" to avoid "frightening queues", as happened in the summer.

The airline "today called on Minister Pinto Luz to ensure that border control at Lisbon airport is properly staffed, so that families with young children are not forced to face “scary” Halloween queues, as happened this summer," it said in a statement.

In the same statement, Ryanair stressed that Lisbon was the worst airport in the country in terms of delays this summer, due to a lack of staff, resulting in queues of up to 2.5 hours.

Ryanair's Director of Comms, Jade Kirwan, was quoted in the statement as saying that the queues were "completely unacceptable", causing inconvenience to passengers and damaging the country's reputation.

On Monday, the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP) expressed its "great concern"  about delays and long queues at Lisbon airport and called for clarification from the Minister of Internal Administration.

The CTP said in a statement that it is "in permanent contact with the government, and a meeting has already been scheduled with the Minister of Internal Affairs to demand clarification on what is happening at Lisbon airport, due in particular to the failings of the new European automated border control system".

The confederation that represents companies in the tourism sector reiterated that these "constant" problems at Lisbon Airport, which have been repeated since May, "jeopardise the image of national tourism in particular and the country in general".

PE/ADB // ADB.

Lusa