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Freak Spanish weather forces airport closure and cancelled flights
Passengers faced major disruptions on both the Canary and Balearic Islands this week
August and September in Spain are traditionally very unpredictable months weather-wise, but the sudden storms, dense mists and driving winds of late are still causing all sorts of disruptions, particularly for unsuspecting travellers.
On Monday August 19, Lanzarote’s César Manrique Airport was completely shut down and all flights to and from the island were temporarily suspended because visibility around the runway was reduced to less than 900 metres.
Early in the morning, the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) put Lanzarote on alert for haze, storms and strong winds and ultimately, 12 flights, including arrivals from Leeds, Birmingham and Dublin, as well as domestic flights from Madrid, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, had to be diverted to Fuerteventura.
Weather conditions improved a couple of hours later and normal operations resumed, but the disruption had a knock-on effect and dozens more flights were delayed throughout the day.
Meanwhile, over in Palma de Mallorca, the weather wasn’t much better and the ripples of disruption were felt far and wide, affecting passengers not just in the Balearic Islands but also as far away as Germany.
Passengers onboard Eurowings flight EW6819, scheduled for departure at 11.05am, were expecting a routine journey from Saarbrücken Airport back to Mallorca.
However, weather issues in Palma caused an initial delay, leading to passengers sitting on the tarmac for hours.
As the weather conditions failed to improve, the passengers were asked to disembark and stretch their legs. Little did they know that their Airbus A320 had other plans. Suddenly, to their shock and dismay, the aircraft departed without them at 2.16pm, flying empty to Mallorca.
According to a Eurowings spokesperson, the decision to operate the flight without passengers was necessary to maintain valuable landing slots at Palma, which had reopened earlier than expected. Allowing passengers to reboard would have caused further delays, potentially resulting in the loss of the slot and exceeding crew duty hours.
Image: Janayte via Wikimedia Commons
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