Flights to and From Portugal Keep Being Cancelled Due to Poor Weather
According to data by ANA-Aeroportos, the weather forecasts of strong wind have affected departures and arrivals, and passengers are advised to confirm the status of their flight prior to heading to the airport, AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.
In addition to flights from and to Madeira, a TAP flight to Lisbon was cancelled, and another three EasyJet flights between 08:45 and 10:50 to Porto, Milan, and Lisbon were annulled, respectively.
EasyJet flights that were supposed to arrive in Lisbon, Porto, and Milan were also cancelled, while nine flights were diverted, and four were cancelled due to strong winds evident on Monday.
The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) has placed Madeira under a yellow category, warning that due to the forecast of strong northeast winds, there can be strong wind blows coming. Strong winds and bad weather can occur along the coastline of the Madeira archipelago.
Earlier this week, flights from Helsinki through Finnair, as well as flights from Birmingham (Jet2), in the United Kingdom and Vienna (Smartwings), were all diverted.
The trend of cancelling flights for different reasons may occur in May, too, while data for March show that European flight cancellations were up by 65 per cent during this month.
According to the Global Times Performance Report, the number of cancelled flights is on the rise as we approach the summer season, with 14,405 flights being within Europe in March alone, up from 8,713 more flights compared to February.
The European countries have experienced the biggest regional increase in global cancellations, as those peaked at 72,900 – 20 per cent more than the 60,780 recorded in the previous month.
According to Eurocontrol, air travelling traffic to European countries has recovered 92 per cent of pre-pandemic levels on Week 17, although cancellations recorded on May 1 caused 1,700 flights to be dropped.
The top two countries that recorded the most change on a weekly basis include Spain, which recorded 4,821 daily flights – one per cent more than in the previous week, followed by Germany, with 4,685 flights, down by one per cent. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, holds the first position with 5,490 daily flights representing a four per cent increase compared to the previous week.
While the top three airlines for this week were Ryanair, EasyJet and Turkish Airlines with 3,039 1,627 and 1,527 daily flights, respectively, the top airports were the Istanbul Airport with 1,434 daily flights. Amsterdam Schiphol and London Heathrow follow close with 1,315 and 1,278 daily flights operated, respectively.
