HOURS OF WAITING AT THE AIRPORT LEAD PASSENGERS TO LOSE PATIENCE AND POINT OUT “LACK OF ORGANISATION”

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

The successive cancellations and delays of flights at Madeira Airport exhausted the patience of many passengers, who had been waiting for hours for their flight to return to their origin destinations.

The haze of dust that hit the airport (and the entire island) has affected airport operations and swelled the number of passengers who concentrate at the airport, as the departure time arrives and the respective flights do not take off.

Passengers in wheelchairs, babies in arms, elderly people with difficulties face hours of waiting.

Some passengers begin to run out of patience and criticise the “lack of organisation” that they are witnessing before their eyes, with advances and retreats in the announced decisions.

From Jornal Madeira

It is a poor show, when it hapoenes on a regular basis. Some sort of operation should be put in place when these things happen. The airport clearly nerds more space for holding this amount of people, making it slighty more comfortable, knowing everyone has somewhere to sit. And more food and drink facilities, especially in departures and arrivals.

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Tobi Hughes

24 Responses

  2. “knowing everyone has somewhere to sit”.

    No, the airport doesn’t have to ensure that everyone has somewhere to sit. It must only guarantee that people that need to, have where to sit. If elderly or people with children did not have where to sit yesterday it just means there is lack of education of the other fellow passengers who have not given their sit.

    The lost of patience is a natural consequence. If people are sent back to their hotel saying the flight is definitely cancelled they will lose patience. If people are asked to wait because the flight may still occur people will lose patience.

    1. It’s this kind of attitude, never taking responsibility and just accepting “that’s the way it is” that leads to these kinds of chronic problems and scenes at the airport, making the place look like a disaster. The lower the standards, the more this is considered normal and I think it’s shameful that standards for what is acceptable are so low in Madeira. No, the airport does not ensure adequate seating considering the number of elderly people with limited mobility travel here.

    2. Antonio Lamas
      Did you enquirer with the agriculture department how many sheep and goats that you can have in your sheepfold. to keep you harm during this cold spell !

    3. Ok, so what if you’ve been waiting 10 hours but a person with children has only been waiting 2 hours – who should get the coveted seat at the airport? Antonio, your “solution” only serves to agitate an already stressful situation…Some of these visitors will be holding heavy bags, and may have health conditions which aren’t visible, despite a youthful/able appearance. At what point does Madeira take some ownership, and admit that they don’t have suitable facilities in place? I have flown countless times to and from Madeira, and even when flights are running it is DISORGANISED. No one coordinating queues and even if you’ve paid your airline for priority service they do not deliver. Discerning tourists will simply go elsewhere.

  3. You obviously were oblivious to the fact that yesterday the bulk of the passengers were of the older generation
    I was fortunate to be able find a nice clean paving slab to sit on with a wall to lean against.
    The headline is correct, there is no plan B.

  4. There’s no lack of organisation, there’s a lack of physical space and facilities. The alternative is to close the Airport cancelling all flights, sending aircraft back to their point of departure, at what cost ? Short of doubling the facilities for people to be informed, fed and seated on these occasions, at whose cost, I can’t see a plan B.

    1. Organisation includes not allowing flight schedules to result in situations where arrivals and departures exceed your physical capacity, constantly. Yes, that is part of organisation. Either build more adequate facilities or don’t have more flights than can be handled. It looks ghetto.

      1. If you know in advance when the wind is going to blow, at what speed and from what direction and if money is no object and there is no need to make a profit then I agree with you.

    1. Go to Benidorm then…
      Madeira is the finest island in the Archipelago.
      Travel companies like TUI, Easy Jet and Jet 2 are in my option going to ruin this paradise and make it like all the typical All inclusive tourist spot they take over with load mouth, drunken British.
      Please don’t let this happen…….

      1. Please do not tar all British tourists like this. I am not loud mouthed nor do I drink.i love the island and respect its people & culture. A remark like that is rude and judgemental

      2. After you’ve stopped the companies you mention from bringing tourists in, and the island has reverted to the Paradise of your dreams, where you spend, two weeks a year? What do you suggest to replace the lost revenue? I, the hotel and restaurant staff, taxi drivers and anyone who has a job dependent on the tourist trade, and there aren’t many jobs that aren’t dependent on the loud mouthed, drunken tourists you want to ban, can’t wait for your solution.

  6. I have been commenting about the lack of organisation and efficiency at the airport for years. Its bad enough under normal conditions but obviously turns into a bit of a disaster when weather impacts operations.

  7. Like a lot of airports Santa Cruz/CR/Madeira airport appears to be a shopping centre with a runway attached. Much space dedicated to shops and not enough space for passengers.

    Having said that, on a normal day the building is capable of hosting the passengers flowing through but as soon as there are hold ups it all goes wrong.

  8. When I was at Madeira Airport I was amazed at how quickly the planes landed and then took off. For a small airport it is the best that I have seen. The dust cloud is not the airport’s fault. Would people prefer the planes took off when it was unsafe ( taking into account it is classed as the 5th most dangerous airport in the world). I have to grin at the post.

  9. The airport lounge is still closed bc of the COVID pandemic. Which is a ridiculous excuse at these times

  10. We decided to discontinue our holiday to madeira after 14 wonderful years we are now getting too old to experience all the stress of travelling to madeira and return flights either by delays or diversions so sad that our wonderful memories end on this note bye bye madeira loved our visits

  11. Try being on one of the planes that failed to land! We left Gatwick at about 7.50ish (50 mins late) and landed in Maderia 10 hours later, after a not-so-nice stop in Tenerif. All easyjet kept telling us was “soon”. After about 6 hours (maybe more) we got offered a bottle of non-alcoholic drink and either a packet of crisps or chocolate. Not a great day.

  12. I think some people need to look around this world and consider how fortunate they are. Rather than expecting everything to be as you wish, why don’t you try just accepting these things as part of the adventure. You’re not living through the horrors of Turkey, Ukraine, Pakistan, Syria etc….you’re just spending a few more hours in a little airport on a little island that’s doing it’s best at the time. It really isn’t that bad folks.

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