The British press has once again targeted Tenerife, this time due to issues with passport control at Tenerife South Airport, describing the conditions as “inhumane.” The start of the British half-term was supposed to be a celebration for Tenerife hotels but turned into a passport nightmare when several flights from the UK arrived simultaneously, overwhelming entry checkpoints and causing scenes more akin to a concert than an international airport.
Half-term breaks are mid-semester school holidays, usually lasting a week, occurring at the end of October, mid-February, and the last week of May.
Only Four Officers
Airport sources acknowledge that only four national police officers were stamping passports when at least five aircraft full of Britons arrived. The situation has worsened since 2021 when UK travelers became non-EU nationals post-Brexit, requiring more thorough checks.
Queues at Tenerife South / TikTok Viral videos show families crowded in a non-ventilated corridor. Some passengers were kept on planes for 45 minutes and, once on the ground, faced a single line snaking outside the building. In this situation, parents lifted children over their heads to “prevent them from suffocating” and shouted for water, according to witnesses quoted by the tabloid The Sun.
Season at Stake
The British newspaper reports that even the president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, and the regional Tourism counselor, Lope Afonso, demanded urgent reinforcements from the Ministry of the Interior and AENA: “Our main market cannot be welcomed in third-world conditions; our high season is at stake.”
In a press conference on government council agreements, the regional president lamented the situation with the example of the “collapse” that occurred on Monday night, May 26, when “more than 500 tourists were trapped in a crowded room at the airport” trying to get through passport control.
Dávila recalled a letter sent to the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, expressing her “concern” about the “undervaluation” conditions of the National Police positions in the passport control system, while the response from the national department stated that they were “sufficiently staffed.”
More Waiting
That’s not all. The European biometric registration system (Entry/Exit System) will begin trials this autumn, requiring fingerprints and photos of non-Europeans, which could multiply wait times if human and technological resources are not increased.
Thus, if not addressed, this situation could be just “a preview of what’s to come.”
