Strong winds continue
Strong winds continued overnight, and the airport does not appear to be working fully so far this morning – the usual 05.30 flight left for Lisbon, but since then the estimated times of arrivals and departures have been pushed back. The graphic above is today’s forecast from Windguru (link on the “Useful Links” tab above). 10.45, still nothing has landed, and just the one that was here overnight having taken off. easyJet Lisbon, Geneva and Bristol, together with TAP Lisbon have all gone elsewhere or returned to Lisbon. The Bristol flight, for those waiting at the airport, headed for the Canaries. The LGW flight has also turned back.
Updates:
Nothing landing . The airport appears to be effectively closed for business for the immediate future. Incoming flights, and the corresponding departures, no longer have even estimated times on the boards. Will update here as usual (15.00: no change rain squalls now adding to the strong winds) (17.00: nothing on the boards, so it looks like everything will focus on tomorrow now).
As at 19.00 the weather conditions have eased at the airport, with one Porto flight showing as scheduled to land in an hour or so. Hopefully this bears well for tomorrow, with Thursdays always being much busier than Wednesdays.
Thursday: Flights started landing as predicted later last night and all appears to be operating normally this morning, though obviously busier as flights from yesterday catch up – ten flights cancelled and six diverted to other destinations.
Cruise ships cancel stopovers
The strong winds in Funchal yesterday caused the cancellation of the scheduled visits of two cruise ships, reported in the Journal. Both “AIDASol” and “Norwegian Spirit” ended up cancelling their mooring due to the winds that were felt in the morning,” according to the port authority APRAM. The latter, due in the morning, did not even make any attempt to approach the port, in view of the wind conditions. In the early afternoon regular visitor AIDASol also gave up, after spending a few hours off in an attempt to enter the port of Funchal. Both vessels proceeded directly to their next destinations.
Two other cruise ships should have left Funchal early yesterday, but conditions did not allow their departure until later. The ‘AIDAPrima’ and the ‘Marella Dream’ took advantage of a window in the intensity of the wind and left under the supervision of the two tugboats of APRAM.
Why have no flights gone to Porto Santo.
The winds were strong enough to keep the cable car closed too.
As Phil D has noted above, why havent more flights been transferred to
Porto Santo, The winds are not going away, it would only take one disaster
to decimate Madeira’s holiday business. Having suffered one of these storm Flight transfers to Porto Santo, whilst it’s the best option at the moment some further investigation is needed.
There are international consultants, who would investigate actions that would improve the safety factor for these increasing wind storms. Some sort of travel plan by sea or increased air flights to Porto Santo, the current
Small plane can’t cope with the volume needed.
It’s a shame that so many cruise ships are cancelling due to the same problem, International expert input is needed to address both issues.