DECO warns of violation of air passenger rights in Madeira

Air travellers’ rights are not being respected at Madeira airport, where strong winds have forced the cancellation of flights since the weekend, the DECO association warned on Monday.

In an interview with Lusa, Paulo Fonseca, coordinator of the legal and economic department of DECO (Portuguese Association for the Protection of Consumer Rights), highlighted that the competent authorities at the Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport in Funchal are not providing adequate information to affected passengers due to the adverse weather conditions that have been felt on the island and have led to numerous flight cancellations and delays.

During the day on Monday, two flights from Lisbon were cancelled, at 00:15 and 01:10, both operated by TAP.

According to the official website of Madeira Airport, the flight that was supposed to leave Porto this Monday for Funchal at 17:30 and also operated by TAP has also been cancelled.

So far, DECO has not received any formal complaints, but there have been “various” telephone contacts asking for clarifications either with the association’s regional structure in Madeira or 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 effective information, [sobre] if there is a delay, if there is a cancellation, and this information must be provided in a timely manner.”

At the same time, “a consumer who has experienced a cancellation or delay, regardless of whether the rerouting occurs immediately or not, has the right to assistance,” the lawyer added.

This assistance includes “free food and drinks for a proportionate amount of the waiting time prior to the actual rerouting.”

Food aid is provided “regardless of whether the situation is under the responsibility of the air carrier or not,” that is, in a situation of “winds and storms, cataclysms, the consumer always retains this right,” he clarified.

Similarly, the passenger “retains the right to accommodation if he has to stay overnight at the airport.”

This is when “big problems start” at Madeira airport, where often a cancelled flight can only be reopened “a few days later”, stressed Paulo Fonseca.

According to DECO, passengers “receive no information from the air carrier” which is responsible for providing accommodation “free of charge for the period required for the next flight.”

In the absence of this information, DECO advises consumers to seek accommodation and keep all receipts (including transportation to and from the airport and meals) to request a refund later.

Paulo Fonseca stressed that this situation is not “extraordinary” at Madeira Airport and that DECO has already warned the regional government about similar circumstances in the past.

“Consumers often spend the night at the airport, they have no information, the counters are closed, they are limited to electronic forms and the pages are often overloaded,” the person in charge said.

At the same time, he added, “consumers cannot file a complaint” and “there are no support mechanisms” that “should be available and activated immediately.”

DECO notes that it regularly alerts the Government and the Assembly of the Republic, as well as the regional authorities of Madeira, “of the need to create contingency plans” at airports in order to “warn consumers that when situations arise that cause massive flight cancellations or significant delays, they will not be affected and may be entitled to immediate assistance.”

Madeira Island is the only territory in the country where the orange heat warning is in effect until 6pm on Monday (the island of Porto Santo is in yellow), the second on the scale issued by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) for a moderate to high risk meteorological situation.

The wind is also making it difficult to fight a rural fire that broke out on Wednesday in the Ribeira Brava mountains and spread the following day to the adjacent municipality of Camara de Lobos to the east and over the weekend to the municipality of Ponta do Sol via Paul da Serra.