Chaos at Canaries airports due to the volume of tourist arrivals

The volume of arrivals at Canary Islands airports, particularly Gran Canaria and Tenerife, caused chaos last night (Saturday) with massive queues to go through passport and health controls with people claiming it took up to an hour after landing to get through the airport.

According to health protocols in the Canary Islands, masks must be worn, which the majority of people were doing, and social distancing should be maintained, which as you can see was impossible due to the volume of passengers.

According to eyewitness accounts, the tension could be felt in the Las Palmas airport last night as several hundred people from different European countries were getting very agitated and frustrated, and started shouting and complaining as they queued to get through border control.

AENA responded to the queues via social media, saying that they wanted to clarify that all the health control tables are working as quickly as possible, and that the maximum waiting time measured yesterday was 19 minutes and not an hour as claimed.

However, they do admit that distancing was not maintained in the arrivals hall because several flights landed closer in time to each other than scheduled, due to delays at their point of origin or tailwinds speeding up their journey.

Unlike in the UK, where your locator form is linked to your passport, so it is automatically seen by border control, in Spain there are two points of entry. First you scan your passport then physically show it (to have it stamped if from the UK), and then you go to a second desk where you show your locator form QR code, which is what is causing hold-ups.