Know you’re rights.
Air passenger rights are not being respected at Madeira airport, where strong winds have forced flights to be cancelled since the weekend, the DECO association warned today.
Speaking to Lusa, Paulo Fonseca, coordinator of the Legal and Economic Department of DECO (Portuguese association for consumer protection), highlighted that the competent authorities at Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, in Funchal, are not providing the necessary information to passengers affected by the adverse weather conditions that have occurred on the island and which have resulted in multiple flight cancellations and delays.
Two flights from Lisbon were cancelled today, at 00:15 and 01:10, both operated by TAP.
Consulting the official website of Madeira airport, the flight that was due to leave Porto today, bound for Funchal, at 17:30, also operated by TAP, has also been cancelled.
To date, DECO has not received any formal complaints, but there have been “several” telephone contacts with requests for clarification, both with the association’s regional structure in Madeira and through online tools.
Noting that air passenger rights are not suspended in exceptional circumstances, such as adverse weather conditions, Paulo Fonseca stressed that “the consumer has the right to information, to be informed, effectively, [about] whether there is a delay, whether there is a cancellation and this information must be given in good time”.
At the same time, “the consumer who experiences a cancellation or delay situation, regardless […] of whether the rerouting occurs immediately or not, has the right to assistance”, added the lawyer.
This assistance – he specified – includes “free meals and drinks, for the proportional waiting time until the rerouting actually takes place”.
Food assistance is due “whether it is a situation that is the responsibility of the air carrier or not”, that is, in a situation of “winds and storms, of cataclysms, the consumer always maintains this right”, he clarified.
Likewise, the passenger “retains the right to accommodation, should he/she have to spend the night at the airport”.
This is where “the big problems begin” at Madeira airport, where, frequently, the cancelled flight will only be assured “a few days later”, highlighted Paulo Fonseca.
According to DECO, passengers “do not receive any information from the air carrier”, which is responsible for ensuring accommodation, which is “free for the period necessary for the next flight”.
In the absence of this information, DECO advises consumers to look for accommodation and keep all invoices (including transport to and from the airport, as well as meals), in order to request a refund later.
Paulo Fonseca highlighted that this situation is not “extraordinary” at Madeira airport and that DECO has already alerted the Regional Government to similar circumstances in the past.
“Consumers often end up spending the night at the airport itself, they don’t have any information, the counters are closed, they are forced to fill out electronic forms and often the pages are overloaded”, said the manager.
At the same time, he added, “consumers are unable to make complaints” and “there are no support mechanisms” to support them, mechanisms that “must be available and must be activated immediately”.
DECO points out that it has regularly alerted the Government and the Assembly of the Republic, as well as the regional authorities of Madeira, “to the need to create contingency plans” at airports in order to “ensure that consumers, whenever there are situations that cause massive cancellations of flights or considerable delays, are not harmed and can immediately have the right to assistance”.
Madeira Island is the only area of the country to be under an orange warning for hot weather, until 6:00 pm today (the yellow level is in force on the island of Porto Santo), the second on the scale, issued by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) when there is a moderate to high risk meteorological situation.
The wind has also been making it difficult to fight the rural fire that broke out on Wednesday in the mountains of Ribeira Brava, spreading the following day to the neighboring municipality, Câmara de Lobos, and, over the weekend, to the municipality of Ponta do Sol, via Paul da Serra.