During a recent press trip to Portugal I had the displeasure to visit Faro airport. The airport in general is fine, as airports go - the moving to an overcrowded transition area aside.I had my son with me and he asked if he could have some nuggets and chips. We toured around the shops on offer and found that the only place offering this delicacy was the 'Food Court'. My God, the prices would make your eyes water - and that's some statement from a citizen of the alleged king of rip-offs, Ireland. Admittedly, prices are up there for all to see, so you have the option of not making a purchase, but if you're in the airport for quite a while, which we were, you have to eat something, somewhere.
Essentially we purchased a portion of nuggets, a burger and a fish burger - all with chips and a drink - not a very unusual order and one for which you'd expect change from €20 under normal circumstances - not in Faro Airport. The whole lot came to the princely sum of €35 - I kid you not. For that price I would have expected this to be some pretty wonderful fast food - but it wasn't. The nuggets and burger were acceptable - or at least would have been if they had been purchased at a reasonable price - but whatever languished in the fish burger hadn't seen the sea for some time - it was pretty dodgy fare in all honesty.
I think the short term price gouging of the authority running the airport, and consequently the franchisees there, isn't doing a whole lot for tourism on the Algarve. They really could, and should, be doing a lot better.
Feels good to get all that off my chest.
Incidentally, the trip to the Algarve itself was very enjoyable, weather was good, plenty to do and Praia da Luz, where we stayed, is a very pretty town well worth a visit. Pity about the airport though.
On our return we were gouged for €45 to leave our car at Shannon Airport for five days - just in case we'd forgotten that monopolies in Ireland still have the ability to extract maximum cash, for little or no service, given half a chance.





