In statements to Lusa, the Regional Secretary for the Economy, Tourism and Culture, Eduardo Jesus, highlighted that there have been reports linking the strong winds felt at Madeira airport, which led to the cancellation of flights and the stranding of people in the infrastructure, with the fire that has been raging on the island for 10 days.

“The coincidence that there was a storm in Madeira in relation to the existence of strong winds that conditioned the operation of the airport had nothing to do with the fires. The fires never jeopardized the normal functioning of the airport. It is important to say this, because this was one of the news items that was spread very incorrectly”, he stressed.

Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport faced constraints in airport operations over the weekend and early in the week, with delays and cancellations of flights that impacted passengers, but the situation has now returned to normal.

In statements to Lusa news agency, Eduardo Jesus assured that everyone was on the ground, from the very beginning and together, to minimise the impact on passengers.

“This scheme is in place and has been improved with the experience we have gained, but whenever there is a downtime, certain measures are activated. On the one hand, it is up to ANA, as the airport concessionaire, and it has this responsibility, to implement the contingency plan that they themselves prepared for this situation to better accommodate passengers”, he said.

This time, according to Eduardo Jesus, the downtime occurred at the peak of demand on the island.

“We had a situation where instead of impacting 300 to 400 people, there was a day when 900 [people] were immobilized at the airport and this caused huge disruption to people and infrastructure,” he said.

The official assured, however, that the Secretariat was always in contact with ANA, operators, airlines and companies that handle people’s accommodation.

“We found solutions. One airline reorganized its supply in terms of aircraft and increased supply to evacuate people. We made an effort to anticipate response times and satisfy passengers,” he said.

Also according to Eduardo Jesus, these were very demanding days, but with everyone’s involvement, the impacts were minimized.

The rural fire on the island of Madeira broke out on August 14, in the mountains of the municipality of Ribeira Brava, gradually spreading to the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Ponta do Sol and, via Pico Ruivo, Santana.

The authorities have advised nearly 200 people to leave their homes as a precaution and have provided public shelters, but many residents have already returned, with the exception of those from Fajã das Galinhas, in Câmara de Lobos.

Fighting the flames has been hampered by the wind and high temperatures, but there are no reports of homes or essential infrastructure being destroyed.

Data from the European Forest Fire Information System indicate that more than 5,002 hectares of land have been burned.

The Judiciary Police are investigating the causes of the fire, but the president of the Madeiran executive, Miguel Albuquerque, said it was arson.