Dear Editor,
I wish to raise awareness of the shameful state of affairs at Faro Airport.
I am a Transfer Operator who uses (suffers) this facility daily. It is beyond comprehension that an International Airport should start major reconstruction work in PEAK SEASON… the Administrators at Faro should hang their heads in shame.
The Algarve depends massively on tourists and yet in AUGUST they choose to disrupt the maximum number of people visiting the region.
I have transported some 5,000 tourists so far this season, and I would expect less than normal to return next year.
Apart from the disruption and zero guidance regarding the car parking facilities there is confusion as to where transfer companies, buses and private cars can drop off departing guests.
A few random yellow lines and two over-zealous chain-smoking GNR officers who have no tolerance to anyone does NOT constitute an acceptable system. This brings me to another salient point – the GNR at Faro Airport.
I have NEVER in ANY other country witnessed a more useless, unhelpful bunch who pertain to stand for the LAW in Portugal and represent their profession at Faro Airport.
I find it disgraceful that ‘men’ who are in a profession where they are here to PROTECT and HELP can stand around in the Arrivals door, chain-smoking, borrowing lighters from tourists and staring unashamedly and boorishly at passing, scantily-clad female tourists.
They provide NO help or assistance and choose when to be able to communicate in English.
They represent a nasty side to Portugal, one which does not look good when tourists arrive.
Fewer people will come to the region because of the reception they receive and the perception they have of the ‘LAW’……every cent counts at the moment, but at Faro Airport they don’t see it.
Martin Brown, by email
