- Iberia and other airlines have asked the Interior Ministry to staff a non-Schengen passport control area at Madrid Barajas
- The move could free capacity for around 50 additional daily long haul flights
- The sector estimates the zone could handle about 7,500 passengers a day
- Iberia has reported thousands of connecting passengers missing flights
- The EU Entry/Exit System has added extra steps to passenger processing
Iberia and other airlines have asked the Interior Ministry to staff a completed non-Schengen passport control area in Terminal 4 zone H at Madrid Barajas. The move could free capacity for around 50 additional daily long haul flights serving England, Ireland, the US and Canada and ease saturation at peak times. The sector estimates the zone could handle about 7,500 passengers a day.
Iberia and travel industry groups have frequently pushed Spanish authorities to increase resources and staffing for passport control at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, specifically Terminal 4 and the T4S satellite building, to prevent connection delays. Iberia has reported that thousands of connecting passengers missed flights due to long border control queues. Travel agencies and airline associations have warned that understaffed police filters and peak arrival waves create severe bottlenecks at T4 and T4S. The rollout of the EU Entry/Exit System and tighter non-Schengen verifications have added extra steps to passenger processing.
The Ministry of Interior maintains that police staffing scales with passenger flows and gets reinforced when traffic spikes. Travellers continue to report unpredictable wait times. The sector estimates the completed zone could handle about 7,500 passengers a day.
