The President of the Government of Madeira has said that he will insist on changing the wind limits at the International Airport in the region with the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba.

“I am almost sure that there is the possibility of making a change to the limits with complete safety. A small change could mean that 80% of flights that were not able to land in Madeira could land safely”, said Miguel Albuquerque.

Albuquerque said that he will address the issue of wind limits at Madeira Airport with the Minister of Infrastructure, within the scope of the presentation ceremony of the Porto Santo Terminal, which takes place on Saturday, emphasising the need to follow up on the working group created to study the situation.

“After setting up the radars to facilitate landings, [the working group] must have the task of carrying out a technical study regarding the wind limits that were set in 1964, at a time when the runway was half the size and not even with the alignment it has today”, he said.

On May 18, NAV – Navegação Aérea de Portugal, manager of the national airspace, indicated that any change in the wind limits at Madeira Airport will only occur after the summer of 2025, the deadline set for the conclusion of the analysis of the data from two radars that will be acquired by the company.

“We are confident that, with this equipment, it will be possible to enable those entitled to make the decision to change the wind limits”, said Pedro Ângelo, member of the NAV administration, in a hearing at the Parliament’s Committee on Economy, Finance and Tourism from Madeira.

Madeira International Airport is the only one in the world whose wind limits are mandatory – 15 knots –, although they were imposed in 1964 and defined based on studies that used a World War II DC3 plane, when the runway was 1,600 meters, currently, it is 2,781 meters.

In January 2021, a working group was created to study the problems of air operations in the Madeira archipelago, within the scope of the then Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, which concluded that 80% of flights diverge because the wind at the time of approach the runway is just three knots over the limit.