The PP calls for more police officers against collapses at airports

The forecasts for Easter are very good: reservations have increased compared to the pre-pandemic. However, there are circumstances that can end up disturbing normality and, among them, are problems in the most sensitive infrastructures. Last Friday there was a breakdown in the AVE at the Chamartín station that caused great havoc, and the threat of passenger collapses at airports continues to be present due to the lack of police force by the Ministry of the Interior.

The PP, echoing the complaints of very representative organizations in the tourism sector, such as the Airlines Association or the Tourism Board, has already been asking, over the last two years, with various parliamentary initiatives, that Fernando Grande Marlaska incorporate more national police officers at passport controls to avoid the "endless queues" that form. Now he is doing it again, presenting a non-legal proposal in Congress in which he demands that the Interior reinforce with "sufficient endowment to the templates" of the Police at the border posts of the airports. NLPs are not binding, but allow parliamentary groups to take a position on issues and put pressure on the government to act.

The promoter of this initiative is the deputy of the PP Agustín Almodóbar, who warns of the negative consequences of these queues: the loss of connections with other flights for many passengers (more than 5,000 have been counted throughout the month of March), the operational problems that accumulate many airlines (delays) and tourist service companies and the image of Spain abroad because foreign media also collect these incidents.

The objective of the popular ones and of the companies of the tourist sector is that border controls are immediately reinforced in the airports with problems (the tourist ones) to face Easter with maximum guarantees and, above all, for the summer season.

Almodóbar recalls that the Interior reinforced airports in June 2022 with 500 agents for passport control, but little by little that endowment has been decreasing. The popular ones also believe that automatic steps must be activated to expedite passenger traffic. In addition, they claim to make an exception for British travelers so that they can avoid border control despite the fact that they are not part of the Schengen area, a measure that Portugal has activated.

"It cannot be that in a time slot with many flights to the United Kingdom there are only two agents for all the volume of passengers there is," says Almodóbar, recalling an episode experienced at Alicante Airport.