Madeira International Airport is facing very strong winds for the second consecutive day, with gusts exceeding 100 km/h, exacerbating the difficulties for passengers whose flights were cancelled due to Storm Emilia.
Late in the morning, the Departures Terminal was experiencing an endless queue of Ryanair passengers, many forced to spend hours at the airport trying to reschedule their flights, a procedure impossible to complete digitally. Among the passengers, Vítor Martins and Zélia Martins, from Caldas da Rainha, and Gregório Teixeira, a resident of Madeira, expressed their frustration and the urgency of getting to Lisbon.
On the airport tarmac, only two aircraft were parked: the small Binter plane, the only one that managed to take off and land in Santa Cruz yesterday, and a Ryanair Boeing that had remained in the parking area for the past few days and this morning even moved to take off for Dublin, Ireland, but ended up being repositioned, nose to nose.
Strong winds remain the main obstacle to the normalization of flights, prolonging waits and uncertainty for passengers and residents.
As reported by DIÁRIO this morning, of the 136 flights, including arrivals and departures, scheduled for this Saturday at Madeira Airport, 105 have already been cancelled: 53 arrivals and 52 departures.
In total, between Friday and this Saturday, 185 flights have already been cancelled at Madeira Airport due to the effects of Storm Emilia, characterized by very strong winds, with gusts exceeding 100 km/h.