“ANA categorically denies the allegations made by ASPP that it is pressuring the Government and the PSP to reduce border control at Humberto Delgado Airport,” said an official source from ANA Aeroportos de Portugal, in a response sent to Lusa news agency.

The airport manager stressed that border control is the exclusive responsibility of the State and that it has “no interference whatsoever” in the way it is carried out.

“By recording waiting times of over two hours at arrivals, and reaching four hours, ANA has, above all, expressed its great concern for passengers,” it stressed, regretting that “ASPP does not share this concern and shows total indifference to such long waiting times.”

On Saturday, ASPP/PSP asked the Government not to give in to alleged pressure from ANA Aeroportos to ease border control in Lisbon with the aim of reducing waiting times.

In a statement, ASPP/PSP said it was aware that ANA Aeroportos de Portugal “has been putting pressure on the Public Security Police and the Government to ease controls at the Lisbon border, in a clear attempt to reduce waiting times.”

The PSP union considered it “incomprehensible and intolerable that the Government” should give in to the interests of a private company “whose sole purpose is to increase its profits,” at a time when the Executive has defined immigration control as one of its priorities.

According to the ASPP/PSP, it is “technically impossible” to ensure the level of security and control required by the Schengen Regulation and, at the same time, speed up the flow of travellers at Lisbon Airport “without putting the entire European community at risk”.

The union warned that “police officers on duty at the borders are exhausted”, because such a high volume of passengers has never been recorded, and this continues to increase.

The ASPP/PSP stated that “there is a lack of recognition and financial compensation” for these agents and stressed that it “will do everything to ensure that a private operator does not interfere with essential public services, especially in safeguarding national security and the Schengen Area”.

In early June, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, said that the problems with queues at Lisbon and Faro airports should be resolved within the next two weeks after a new system comes into operation.

These statements came after the successive publication, in previous weeks, of images of long queues of passengers from countries outside the Schengen Area at Faro and Lisbon airports, waiting for several hours for immigration control.