Land border crossings are not the only place where waiting times are long.
Due to increased controls at the border crossings, long queues and waiting times have become an almost regular occurrence at the major Croatian land border crossings, especially those on the border with Slovenia. However, due to the long lines at passport control check points at the new terminal of the Franjo Tuđman International Airport in Zagreb, even those passengers coming to or leaving Croatia by airplane have started to complain. In recent days, some of the passengers said on social networks that they were stuck for a long time at passport control stations at Zagreb Airport, reports Večernji List on May 10, 2017.
One passenger wrote that at 07:00 on Sunday morning, just one passport control station was open and that at that time there were at least four international flights leaving Zagreb. Representatives of Zagreb Airport explained that it is not they who decide on the matter and that they can only ask their colleagues from the Interior Ministry to post a larger number of police officers, especially in peak hours, because passport control is within the competence of the Ministry.
“The airport administration and the representatives of the Interior Ministry have held several meetings, during which we have discussed the necessary increase of the number of police officers at the airport police station who are trained to inspect passports, in order to further accelerate the process, especially given the fact that the upcoming summer tourist season is fast approaching which will bring an expected increase in traffic,” say airport representatives.
The Interior Ministry says that the number of passport control posts at the airport is appropriate given the number of passengers. During periods of arrival and departure of a larger number of aircraft (with about 1,000 passengers), border check waiting times are about 15 minutes, the Ministry says. It also states that there are no long queues at the airport with regards to border controls.
The Ministry further explains that, on Sunday morning, border check operations in the departures area were conducted by three police officers, which later increased to six. However, while border controls were carried out by six police officers, one of the stations had problems with the computer system, causing additional waiting in that line which lasted for about 30 minutes, the Ministry says.
