Albuquerque will ask Minister Galamba to change the wind limits at the airport

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

I have to say this presidente talks out of his @#*# and has no respect for anyone living and visiting Madeira, he does nothing to help the locals on the island, and just interested in the rich visiting and investing. Let’s pray he goes soon.

The President of the Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque, took office this morning in Câmara de Lobos, who intends to take advantage of the presence of Minister João Galamba next Saturday in Porto Santo to “talk” about two subjects that concern our archipelago: the  Ellalink submarine cable in a new investment that will be made, and the change in the wind limits for operation at Madeira Airport.

The 80 percent of flights that did not land in Madeira with these [current] limits could land safely. It is a technical job, which has to be done with great seriousness”.

 

 

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Tobi Hughes

14 Responses

    1. Tobi, are you due any kind of election over there ? How long before he could be voted out ? ❎ ??

  2. Alberquerque can talk as much ???? as he likes but he has no say in the matter of wind speeds and landing aircraft. That is down to the aviation authorities.

  3. Tobi, your last paragraph,
    “The 80 percent of flights that did not land in Madeira with these [current] limits could land safely. It is a technical job, which has to be done with great seriousness”.
    Is this your opinion or are you quoting from an aviation expert?

  4. I agree with your view, Toby: a) surely it’s up to the airlines & airport management to decide; and b) after annually visiting Madeira for over 25 years, we feel that the island is losing its unique character

  5. With all my respect to you, but what do you know exactly about what has been done in the last years on Miquel Albuquerque presidency? Its easy to write/say nonsense words and to quickly blame. Have you ever been in “his shoes”? I do hope Miguel Albuquerque is here to stay for many years to come.

  6. I think most people including Tobi are missing the point here. I will try to clarify some bits.

    1. Madeira airport has wind limits which and when the wind is above the limit Air Traffic Control informs the captain the runway is closed. These wind limits are set by NAV which is the entity in Portugal that regulates Air Traffic Control.

    2. Even if the wind is not above the limit, Captains can always decide not to land just like in the other thousands of airports around the world where there are no limits.

    3. There are different technical opinions on whether these limits should be there or not. The Captain with the greatest number of landings in Madeira says they no longer make sense. Others say they do. All we know is this is a technical decision.

    4. So, if this is a technical decision why does politic Albuquerque talk about it? Because NAV which regulates ATC in Portugal and imposes air regulations in Portugal including wind limits in Madeira is a public entity, ie, it is an independent entity but is under supervision of cental governmenr. So, in order to make a technical assessment the government needs to provide the means and funding to NAV so those technical decisions are made. This is what Albuquerque is asking for.

    1. Thank you for the clarification Antonio (although I don’t know where your info comes from) that makes sense

    2. Plus it’s more the wind gusts I would think that make it difficult to land and the cross winds, as these are more common to aircraft not landing, than just strong wind.

    3. Antonio, one further point. ATC can tell the pilot the runway is closed but the Pilot can still land, as happened a few weeks ago. All the ATC can do is tell the pilot he will be reported.

  7. My wife and I came on a flight one year that the landing was so bad my knuckles were white, I would never want to experience it again and yet the plane landed, the issue should be about people’s safety and not one about numbers landing on the tarmac, get a grip MR A you’re playing with peoples lives, and then what will it take to change any decision made afterwards, an accident maybe ?, would be catastrophic for the island, plenty of things that you can change in life but the weather is not one of them, I suggest MR A that you spend more time and effort into finding a solution to the thousands of people stranded here when the weather is poorly, after all it’s better to have a stranded tourist than a dead one.

    1. Indeed. I’m not sure the week in which the Titan submersible made such prominent news is the best time to assert that safety rules are overrated. If there were consensus on this it would be a different matter, but the location of the airport does not leave a lot of margin for error. I’d also be a little more reassured if Albuquerque hadn’t also said previously regarding the safety of visitors “it is better to have many tourists and some accidents than not to have tourists” as if safety and tourism were somehow mutually exclusive.

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