{"id":261865,"date":"2026-01-01T16:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261865\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:00:10","slug":"tourism-chief-slams-madrid-over-christmas-travel-nightmare-at-malaga-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261865\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism chief slams Madrid over Christmas travel nightmare at Malaga airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

MALAGA\u2019s top tourism boss slammed Madrid after chaos erupted at Malaga Airport during the Christmas rush.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Francisco Salado, president of the provincial council and head of Costa del Sol\u2019s tourism board, accused the central government of \u201cdisorganisation\u201d and a shocking \u201clack of investment\u201d as he warned that long queues and travel disarray at Malaga Airport had tarnished Spain\u2019s international image.<\/p>\n

The controversy came as Spain rolled out a new EU border control system, tightening checks on non-Schengen travellers \u2013 a rollout Salado called a \u201ccomplete disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Man arrested in Malaga for allegedly abusing pregnant underage girlfriend\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we saw at Malaga Airport was absolutely unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Salado claimed that thousands of passengers were left trapped in endless queues, with holidaymakers venting frustration even before reaching their hotels.<\/p>\n

Airlines were forced to warn travellers to arrive hours early as overworked passport desks struggled to cope, Salado added.<\/p>\n

He said staff shortages and malfunctioning equipment had crippled one of Spain\u2019s busiest airports, which handled more than 25 million passengers annually \u2013 many from outside the Schengen zone.<\/p>\n

Salado directly blamed Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Transport Minister Oscar Puente, demanding an urgent increase in police numbers and immediate fixes to the border control system.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Motorhome marauders busted: gang of thieves caught after \u20ac200,000 crime spree across Spain\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe lifeblood of the Costa del Sol was on the line,\u201d he warned, calling the situation a serious threat to tourism.<\/p>\n

Madrid hit back, accusing Salado of playing politics over the travel chaos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Javier Salas, the central government\u2019s sub-delegate for Malaga, pointed out that Salado had stayed silent on long waits in health services run by his own party, the right-wing Partido Popular (PP).<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe did not hear Salado once blame the regional government, run by the president of his own party, Juanma Moreno, for the daily queues people in Malaga faced at health centres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople had to beg for a GP appointment or wait 15 days for one.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> High-speed police chase with drunk driver ends in terrifying crash on Costa del Sol during red weather alert\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to read more Malaga News<\/a> from The Olive Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MALAGA\u2019s top tourism boss slammed Madrid after chaos erupted at Malaga Airport during the Christmas rush. Francisco Salado,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,16838,13,14,134652,6,11,12,15,16,46208,5,43702,43703,43704,7,8,4319,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-261865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-christmas","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-francisco-salado","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-malaga","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-news-spain","22":"tag-newspaper","23":"tag-the-olive-press","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-travel","27":"tag-world","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115820679910538042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}