Together with 4 friends she has today travelled to Lisbon.

She arrived at the airport at 9.30 am and she was finally though the passport check at 12.37pm. A three hour wait.

She is only staying in Portugal for 3 nights, and due to the inefficient system at the airport, by the time she has checked into her hotel and had something to eat (she was up at 5am), there will be no time for the sightseeing she had planned for today.

For a country desperate to welcome tourists, this is an absolute disgrace. If everyone on that flight goes home and tells their friends of this disgraceful treatment (they reckon that a bad experience is repeated at least ten times), then how many tourists will, quite naturally say ‘I will go somewhere else - I am not going to Portugal’. What a wasted opportunity - due to the sheer inefficiency at the airport. With less tourists arriving, airport staff will also lose their employment, in common with many more Portuguese who work in the tourist industry.

Anne Hodges,

Lagos. By email