In a response to Lusa, ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal confirmed that Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport “has faced restrictions in airport operations, delays and flight cancellations in recent days, affecting passengers.”
The airport operator also confirmed that passengers “have been forced to remain at the airport,” whose operations have been affected by strong winds that have occurred especially since the weekend.
The “extraordinary situation” caused by the adverse weather conditions in the archipelago “has mobilized all the teams of the airport and its partners, who have tried with all the means at their disposal to assist the passengers stranded at the airport without accommodation and without flights,” ANA guarantees.
“The weather conditions now allow the airport to operate at full capacity, which means that the airlines are already regulating the situation and continuing the travel of passengers waiting for their flights,” it says.
According to the airport manager, “the airport teams have activated the emergency plan”, but the PS, the main opposition party in the archipelago, has already asked the regional government of Madeira for its activation.
The situation at the airport prompted the PS/Madeira parliamentary group to send a request to the regional secretary of Economy, Tourism and Culture, Eduardo Jesus.
In the statement sent to journalists today, the Socialists ask whether ANA “has activated the emergency plan […] to provide all necessary assistance to the affected passengers”.
The Socialists also ask what “extraordinary measures have been taken to provide greater comfort to the stranded passengers”.
On Monday, the Portuguese consumer protection association DECO told Lusa that the rights of air passengers were not respected at this facility.
This article is originally published on theportugalnews.com
