Passengers arriving in Iceland stuck in line for hours
The line of passengers arriving in Iceland will at times snake through much of the terminal. Ljósmynd/Aðsend
Long queues tend to appear in the arrivals section of Iceland‘s main international airport in Keflavik. Mbl.is and other Icelandic news outlets reported over the weekend how slow-moving lines of passengers tend to form at the airport due to a bottleneck where vaccination records and PCR test results are verified by airport police.
Mbl.is interviewed comedian and former mayor of Reykjavik Jón Gnarr who found himself stuck in the line on Saturday having just arrived from a trip abroad: “This is the worst I have ever seen – [the crowd] feels like being at a game between Manchester United and Liverpool. People are frustrated and have started pushing, shoving, and removing barriers [set up by the police],” he said while waiting his turn. “There just are far too many passengers and too few workers reviewing their papers. So we are all jammed in here like barrelled herring.”
Mr. Gnarr added that he had visited Belgium and Holland where he was able to have his papers checked with no queueing to speak of.
Head of police: “Nothing can be done”
The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV) reported earlier in August that it will sometimes take a few hours for people to make their way through the airport.
It is the responsibility of the airport division of the Suðurnes-region police force to review the Covid papers of passengers. When asked by Mbl.is Mr. Sigurgeir Sigmundsson, head of police at Keflavik Airport, said that nothing could be done to prevent the long queues from forming.
“What could we do differently? The number of passengers is simply too high for what we have to do and our capacity to do it. That‘s just the way it is,” said Mr. Sigmundsson and added that there was no space anywhere in the terminal to add more stations to check Covid papers.
Long lines will also form in the check-in area of the terminal, with little improvement seen since Iceland Monitor reported on the problem mid-July. Airline staff must manually verify the Covid paperwork of all passengers leaving Iceland, meaning travellers can‘t check in online or use the check-in kiosks provided at the airport. Mbl.is has reported that the queue for the check-in desks sometimes gets so long that it starts outside the terminal building. ai@mbl.is
