A lack of staff is causing long queues and the chaos being caused at the airport is attrcating bad headlines in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, damaging Mallorca's image.
Headlines such as: UK visitors face 'horrdous' enBrexit queues at Spanish holiday airports or Spain hotels fear Brits will boycott Mallorca due to huge airport queues are running across the UK while Euronews ran with Mallorca airport on verge of “collapse” after weeks of long queues.
Despite a meeting between the various authorities back in April about the need for more police at Palma airport, opposition parties were critical about nothing having been done and that there is a lack of state police in the Balearics due to the high cost of living and the fact that the financial bonus for members of the security forces moving to the Balearics to work being far from sufficient to cover their costs.
More police are needed to handle arrivals from the UK because, as a result of Brexit, they now have to have their passports stamped on arrival and departure.
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I've seen the queues in Paris. And Munich. And Amsterdam. And Atlanta. And Chicago. But most of the people in those queues aren't British, so it's irrelevant. There should always be a special lane for UK nationals that waves them through without delay.
Morgan WilliamsHave you never seen the long queues to get in at Luton and that was before Brexit and nothing to stamp.
Which is the entire point of the intended 2022 E-Visa scheme, your time in- and out is logged electronically. But apparently €2.35 a year is too much to pay for the convenience (see parallel story).
It does get busy on certain days. Brits shouldn't be subjected to such inconveniences. Special lanes that have concierge red carpet passport control waving them through need to be set up to minimise any inconvenience to Brits. Does Mallorca want to go back to impoverishment because Brits aren't receiving the exceptional treatment they deserve?
In the ideal world there would be two different queues for British people. The long queue for those who voted for Brexit and the shorter one for those who didn't. That would be fair and democratic.