Due to weather conditions resulting from the passage of Storm Emilia through Madeira, several flights from the United Kingdom were cancelled, affecting many emigrants who had planned their holidays to spend Christmas in the region with their families.
Several hundred emigrants from Madeira are stranded at various airports in the United Kingdom, waiting for the weather to improve so they can take off for Madeira.
At Gatwick Airport, it is estimated that more than four hundred emigrants from Madeira are stranded, a large part of them coming from the Channel Islands, DIÁRIO learned from the community.
One example is Marco Fernandes, an emigrant in Jersey who has been traveling since last Thursday and was stranded at Gatwick Airport. Yesterday, his flight to Madeira began on British Airways. He reports that the flight lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes when the pilot informed the passengers that due to weather conditions in Madeira, the aircraft would have to reverse course and return to Gatwick Airport. And so it happened. Approximately 220 passengers were on that flight, the vast majority of whom were emigrants from Madeira.
Marco Fernandes explained that today, Saturday, he had a flight scheduled to Funchal at 12:10 pm. However, there were no improvements and his flight was canceled again. Storm Emilia has not let up.
The emigrant explained that he intends to spend Christmas with his family for three weeks. For now, he has a new flight scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday) at 10:10 am from London-Gatwick airport to Madeira.
This case is not unique; there are several emigrants residing in Jersey in this situation who will only arrive in Madeira in the coming days, some tomorrow, others on Monday, and still others next Tuesday.
Some emigrants contacted by DIÁRIO said that to reach Madeira they will have to travel to Porto airport, others to Lisbon airport, and there is also a family that will travel this afternoon from London airport to Porto, from Porto airport to Lisbon airport, and their respective arrivals in the Region are only scheduled for next Monday.
Yesterday and today, flights from Easyjet and British Airways were cancelled at Gatwick Airport.
The latest report compiled by DIÁRIO this Saturday morning indicates that of the 136 flights, including arrivals and departures, scheduled for today 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.