Lisbon airport tips?

[Bell21]

My son is travelling via Lisbon airport this weekend and his TikTok is apparently ablaze with reports of how chaotic it is there, and there are also reports of upcoming strikes at the airport this weekend. A few questions:

1) I don't like to over-react to reports of how 'hectic' something is - is Lisbon airport that much worse than any other European airport?

2) As an aside, is the ANA lounge schengen zone or non-schengen, and I've read it's after security, but it seems like there's still security at the gate to navigate?

 

[aspro2]

My son is travelling via Lisbon airport this weekend and his TikTok is apparently ablaze with reports of how chaotic it is there, and there are also reports of upcoming strikes at the airport this weekend. A few questions:

1) I don't like to over-react to reports of how 'hectic' something is - is Lisbon airport that much worse than any other European airport?

2) As an aside, is the ANA lounge schengen zone or non-schengen, and I've read it's after security, but it seems like there's still security at the gate to navigate?

I last went through it two years ago. It has always been incredibly slow for luggage on arrival (seemed improved most recently) and the airside on departure was very busy but not "chaotic" in any way. Boarding, on the other hand, involved TP dragons in a cramped gate lounge doing a lot of bossing and shouting and creating about 10 different lines, but while that was needlessly unpleasant it still wasn't any more chaotic than many other European airports. I haven't seen the TikTok stuff, so can't directly comment on that.

 

[kelvedon]

Was there last year. Baggage very slow to arrive ( 40 mins ). Intra Schengen flight to no customs or immigration.

 

[LDN via BNE]

We arrived in Lisbon from Heathrow 2 weeks ago.

The problem with Lisbon airport is they are currently using a mix of old and new passport machines. The new machines are primarily dedicated to those arriving with European passports, while all other electronic passports (British, Australian, American, Canadian etc.) are directed to the old machines.

The rejection rate at the old machines was unreal; must have been in excess of 80%. Once rejected from the old machines, one is directed to use the new machines by pushing ahead of those queueing with European passports.

The manual processing queue was extremely long when we arrived mid-afternoon, so was not a viable alternative.

We were fortunate to be at the front of the business cabin, so were through reasonably quickly. It looked like it would have been a nightmare for those towards the back.

Luggage arrived really quickly, and was already on the belt by the time we were through passport control.

Not much one can do to really other than be near the front of the plane (and hope there aren’t numerous arrivals at the same time).

 

[Scarlett]

LIS is no busier or more chaotic than any other airport from the four times I’ve been through there. Maybe ongoing industrial action is making it so?

The ANA lounge is in the Schengen area.
This was the departure board in the lounge for my ill-fated return journey last Oct.


The lounge is definitely airside, but I don’t recall any additional gate security for an intra-Schengen flight.

 

[Bell21]

LIS is no busier or more chaotic than any other airport from the four times I’ve been through there. Maybe ongoing industrial action is making it so?

The ANA lounge is in the Schengen area.
This was the departure board in the lounge for my ill-fated return journey last Oct.
View attachment 460207

The lounge is definitely airside, but I don’t recall any additional gate security for an intra-Schengen flight.

Sorry to hear it didn’t go well

My son is doing lisbon to Sydney so non Schengen so would he still go to Ana lounge and then go thru passport control to go to non schengen?

 

[RooFlyer]

All good intel, thanks. Doing CDG-LIS-CDG J with HLO and probably on TAP, so shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Scarlett]

Sorry to hear it didn’t go well

My son is doing lisbon to Sydney so non Schengen so would he still go to Ana lounge and then go thru passport control to go to non schengen?

There are no direct flights to Aust from LIS. So the question is where is his first flight to? Or which airline?

If his first flight is to a point outside Schengen then yes to your question. He’d have to leave the lounge early to account for the outwards immigration process. I did this from the TAP lounge when flying LIS-SAL (Cabo Verde) and there was no wait at all, but that was departing about 2030. But if there are reports of chaos??? then maybe he should be extra cautious about when to leave the lounge.

 

[Bell21]

There are no direct flights to Aust from LIS. So the question is where is his first flight to? Or which airline?

If his first flight is to a point outside Schengen then yes to your question. He’d have to leave the lounge early to account for the outwards immigration process. I did this from the TAP lounge when flying LIS-SAL (Cabo Verde) and there was no wait at all, but that was departing about 2030. But if there are reports of chaos??? then maybe he should be extra cautious about when to leave the lounge.

Thanks - very helpful - LIS-DOH-SYD on Qatar/Virgin (well Qatar really) --- I should've added that in my haste!