Thanks to Laura for sending me this message, and I feel her pain and annoyance, from such a poor service.
Come back, Aerovip!
When we moved to Porto Santo over 10 years ago we had a small but good air service to Madeira, run by SATA, followed by the company 7-Air. This was important to us, as our doctor is on Madeira, and most visits to our family need to be taken via Funchal. This was replaced a few years later by the Portuguese company Aerovip – 19 -seater planes that flew three return journeys a day. Very friendly pilots and an excellent service.
Now we have the Spanish (why?) company Binter, with 74 seater planes, that fly twice a day. But, trying to get a flight has become impossible! March is fully booked, and seats from April onwards have not yet been opened for residents or non-residents alike. We went to the ferry office yesterday morning (Saturday morning) when one might expect a booking office to be open, and it is closed on weekends. So, we will try online, and if we have to, go back there on Monday and try to book ferry tickets for the dates we need to attend important medical appointments on Madeira. This will necessitate two hotel nights in Funchal which would not have been necessary were flights available.
There is NO explanation on Binter’s site as to why their April 2023 onwards seats are not available for booking and no indication as to when they will be. It is a mess, and an injustice to the residents of Porto Santo to treat us like this.
I would be happy for this to go on your blog for comments. Maybe somebody out there knows when we will be able to book again?