I would like to formally record a strong complaint over the complete and utter operational failure at Faro airport on 6th July, 2026. Check in lines were atrociously long with staff meandering through the process with absolutely no awareness of the queues or sense of urgency.
Security was a complete farce - the woman on the line rifled through each and every bag including my handbag, taking out each item and not finding anything - because there was nothing to find. Why did she empty my bag, delaying me a further 10 minutes? Why did she remove all my items and just leave them in the tray? This was nothing to do with security and purely a power trip. I reiterate - there was NOTHING in there that required removal or rescanning.
The queues at passport control were laughable. Not only did a queue form from the check in desks onwards but there was NO management and complete disregard for passengers who had already been delayed by the incompetence of airport personnel and whose flights were actively boarding. No prioritisation of flight departure times, no communication, no management and no humanity. Passengers were actively helping each other but staff seemed to be actively working against passengers.
At one point a gate agent called all of the BA Heathrow passengers out of the line (as it was final call) - passengers including myself left spots in line and THEN were told by the police to go back to the back of the line. Atrocious.
This is by far the absolute worst airport experience I’ve had the misfortune to endure - and I am a very frequent global and European traveller.
This has nothing to do with the airline and is fully the responsibility of airport operational management who have absolutely failed.
This requires immediate investigation with suitable accountability and changes put in place. No organisation should be able to get away with this abject failure.
Photo from 'We love the Algarve' Facebook group
