SPAIN: Dozens of passengers missed their flights from Madrid yesterday and others arrived at their destinations minus luggage, as they were hit by teething problems on the first day of operations from the new fourth terminal at Barajas airport. There are fears that these problems will get worse this week as the airport reaches full weekday capacity.
In spite of warnings to passengers to allow extra time for check- in, many Spaniards ignored the advice and enjoyed a Sunday morning lie-in. Some could not even find their way to the new terminal 4 building, situated some way from the rest of the airport buildings. There have been many complaints that terminal 4 is hard to reach. Even taxi drivers say it is easy to miss the turning off the main road; if they did they would find themselves on a toll road to Zaragoza, with few exits.
There were also complaints that once at check-in, there was no electricity and computers were down, causing flights to be missed.
Dummy runs have been held for the past two months with volunteers acting as passengers and hundreds of empty suitcases being used to test check-in facilities and transport to non-existent flights.
In spite of this, and an extra 400 staff employed to inform passengers, many people were seen running along the long passageways trying to find their departure gates. A mime and theatre group were contracted to amuse passengers and prevent tempers becoming too frayed.
The new state-of-the-art T-4. designed by architects Richard Rogers and Spaniard Antonio Lamela, which authorities boast is the most modern and one of the largest in Europe, can handle up to 120 take-off and landing operations every hour. Most of the major European airlines, includ- ing Aer Lingus, have made the move into their new quarters.
It will be up to two years before the metro underground line from the city centre to T-4 is completed. Two new bus routes from Madrid will begin today, but the bus link from other terminals will add at least 15 minutes to check-in times.