Winter Travel Alert: Lisbon Airport Passport Lines Could Reach 2.5 Hours

Holiday-makers fresh from their flight are losing almost as much time standing in snaking lines as they spent in the air. Ryanair now warns that, unless authorities move quickly, travellers could face a repeat of this summer’s border-control chaos just as the peak winter getaway begins.

A Boiling Point at Lisbon Airport

The company’s communications chief, Jade Kirwan, describes the scene at Humberto Delgado as “border-queue purgatory” where some passengers waited two-and-a-half hours to clear passport checks—longer than the hop from Porto to Madrid. For Portugal-based readers, that figure stings: Lisbon handled 31M passengers last year, yet remains hemmed in by a chronic staff shortage at the Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras, now overseen by the police (PSP). Ryanair singles out the capital as “the worst performer in the country”, contending that Oporto, Faro and Madeira absorbed the same summer surge with far fewer incidents. The carrier has already dropped Lisbon from its fresh winter route map, redirecting capacity to airports it judges more reliable.

What Went Wrong This Summer

Officials blame the rollout of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES)—live since 12 October— which logs fingerprints and facial images for every non-EU traveller. That extra 45-second scan compounds a border hall that, even in 2019, averaged 66 minutes per arrival. The technology itself is not unique to Portugal; however rival hubs from Amsterdam to Barcelona invested early in e-gates, servers and training, smoothing the switch. Lisbon’s bottleneck turned critical on 14 October when queues breached the 90-minute mark for Schengen departures and topped four hours for long-haul arrivals. PSP sources admit they can field only 65% of the personnel required for peak flows.

Government and ANA Response

Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz promised in June that new biometric kiosks and upgraded servers would clear the logjam “within two weeks”. Four months on, the queues persist. Airport manager ANA | Vinci argues that it can expand Terminal 1—adding a 33-thousand-m² Pier Sul and 12 extra gates—yet insists border checks remain a sovereign duty. PSP unions counter that without a hiring spree, the hardware will gather dust. In the near term, ANA urges travellers to arrive three hours before take-off and use fast-track corridors where available. Long term, the Luís de Camões project in Alcochete is touted as the silver bullet, though its ribbon-cutting lies well beyond the current decade.

Why It Matters for Portugal’s Image

Tourism still fuels more than 15% of national GDP. Ryanair warns that holidaymakers delayed in Lisbon will quite simply book Seville, Málaga or Bordeaux next time, siphoning overnight stays, restaurant bills and car-hire revenue out of the Portuguese economy. Travel-data firm Cirium records that by September, 44.3% of flights at Lisbon suffered disruption, the highest in Western Europe, pushing airline compensation exposure to €145M so far this year. Hoteliers in the capital privately fear that social-media footage of kilometre-long queues may undo millions spent on marketing campaigns that pitch Portugal as hassle-free.

What Travellers Should Expect This Winter

For the upcoming Halloween weekend and the Christmas rush, PSP plans to reassign officers from quieter land borders, while ANA will keep e-gates open 24/7 for EU residents. Industry insiders doubt that will be enough if volume reaches last December’s 83,000 daily passengers. Ryanair’s message is blunt: either the government fields the agents required or Lisbon risks another season of “frightening queues” that could permanently dent the country’s appeal. For now, anyone flying out of the capital would be wise to pack patience—alongside the passport.