Portugal welcomes UK passengers through e-gates at immigration
Gatwick Airport – which has more flights to Portugal than any UK airport - welcomes news that British travellers to Portugal can now use electronic e-gates at the border to help make entry into the country quicker and smoother.
Lisbon, Faro, Porto and Funchal (Madeira Island) airport all have RAPIDforALL e-gate facilities available, so British passengers using them do not need to queue in conventional passport control lanes, although they will still be required to go through a quick passport stamping process.
Operated by VINCI Airports, which also operates all international airports in Portugal, Gatwick airport has over 260 flights a week scheduled to and from Portugal this summer (April to Oct) - which makes it the largest gateway airport to Portugal in the UK.
easyJet will operate most flights between Gatwick and Portugal (4975) for the summer season, followed by TAP (1572), BA (660), Wizz (514) and TUI (129). Most flights will arrive in Faro (3550), Lisbon (1900), Porto (1500) and Funchal (822).
Stephanie Wear, VP Airline Relations, Gatwick Airport, said:
“It is very welcome news that UK passengers to Portugal now have the option to use e-gates at the border. This move really differentiates Portugal from other countries and will hopefully boost visitor numbers as people take advantage of the e-gate technology which makes it easier, more convenient and quicker for Britons to enter the country.”
Chloé Lapeyre, CCO, ANA Aeroportos de Portugal, said:
“We are positive about the implementation of this new system RAPIDforALL by the Portuguese immigration authority in our main international airports and we facilitated the logistics to agilise their installation. We hope that it will contribute positively to welcoming the traffic recovery, namely for British passengers that amounted 2,5 million and represent a relevant segment of tourism in Portugal.”
Gatwick is the UK’s second largest airport and flies a range of both short and long-haul point-to-point services. The airport is a vital piece of the UK’s national infrastructure and is also a major driver for both the regional and national economies. In 2019, a new long-term partnership was formed with VINCI Airports which purchased a 50.01% stake in the airport.
The world's leading private airport operator, VINCI Airports operates more than 50 airports in 11 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Thanks to its expertise as a global integrator, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and manages airports by providing its investment capacity and its know-how in optimizing operational performance, modernizing infrastructures and managing their operations and environmental transition. VINCI Airports is the first airport operator to have committed to a global international environmental strategy in 2016, to achieve the goal of net zero emission across its entire network by 2050.
For more information:
www.vinci-airports.com
@VINCIAirports
https://www.linkedin.com/company/vinci-airports/
GIP manages the remaining 49.99% interest in Gatwick and is a leading independent infrastructure fund manager that makes equity and debt investments in high quality infrastructure assets in the energy, transport, water/waste and digital infrastructure sectors. GIP manages US$84 billion for its investors. Its 46 portfolio companies have combined annual revenues of US$61 billion and employ nearly 100,000 employees. For more information on GIP please visit https://www.global-infra.com/
