Madeira News Blog

(6th September). Business between Brazil and Portugal between January and August fell 37% compared to the same period in 2008, down to €735 million, said a government source. The main Brazilian products sold in Portugal are oil, soybeans, iron and steel. Brazil imports from Portugal mainly olive oil, wine, cod and casts(?).

‘AIDA Cruises Returns – The first visit of the new cruise ship of AIDA will be on 16th of September’. The visits of cruise ships start to increase again this month, after 3 slack months whilst the cruise ships concentrate more on Northern European circuits. The German cruise company AIDA returns this month with cruise legs between the Canaries and Madeira, using its newest ship ‘AIDAluna’ (pictured) which came into service on 22nd April.

‘ANAM meet with Ryanair in Beijing – A meeting is scheduled for the International Fair being held this weekend in China’. Ryanair contacted ANAM, the operators of Madeira Airport, at the end of last month, with a view to a possible scheduled route opening to our island. The Diário says that the response has already gone to the company responsible for the Irish low-cost airline, and it was suggested a meeting between the two parties at the next international conference "Routes", to be held between 13th and 15th September in the city of Beijing (China). An estimated 92% of the world’s major airports are represented there. Roberto Santa Clara Gomes, Deputy Director of Airports on Madeira, and responsible for the sales and marketing of ANAM, will be in Beijing and in charge of contacts with Ryanair. For the airline it is not the first time of showing an interest in flying to Madeira. Ryanair has been trying for 10 years to strike a deal, but the demands from the airport are too high. Ryanair has a new base now in Porto, which opened last week. Bernardo Trindade, secretary of state for tourism in Portugal, talked about Madeira during a meeting at the inauguration last week, with the chairman of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary.

(4th September). ‘Movements Grow In The Airport – Madeira better than Lisbon, Porto and Faro in August’. Clearly Madeira doesn’t compete with the 3 main airports in Portugal in terms of numbers, but in term of growth (or recovery) the figures were promising last month with a growth in aircraft movements and passenger numbers, something no other continental Portuguese airport achieved in either measurement. The result is mostly down to increased domestic passengers, that are offsetting losses for UK and German markets, but improvements have also been noted from other countries including Sweden, Norway, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, France, Netherlands and Venezuela. In the case of those last 4 countries, new or increased flights have been responsible. The year end outlook is optimistic for Madeira Airport. Continued passenger growth from Lisbon and Porto, new SATA flights to Stockholm and Copenhagen, a new flight from Paris from Aigle Azur, the possibility of Easyjet restarting suspended flights from London Gatwick, and speculation that Air Berlin might start an operation to come here covering 10 or more German airports. There is also a little optimistic news on some charter flights restarting. Also East European visitors are expected to grow, as connections to the continent are now available in Russia and Poland. Porto Santo Airport is unfortunately a different story, as the chart shows, with not much positive news on the horizon. Also discussed yesterday on the news was the possibility of flights from Ryanair to Madeira.  

‘Bernardo Spoke About Madeira To The President Of Ryanair’. Secretary of State for Tourism, and Madeira’s head-of-the-list for the socialist party, Bernardo Trindade, met yesterday with the chairman of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary. The ‘can I have a word in your ear guv’ happened after the inauguration of a new Ryanair base at Porto. The discussion allowed the two to consider the importance of making connections to the tourist destinations of Portugal, now that there is a new base in operation. The first of such is the new connection Porto – Faro, due to start in the Autumn. Ryanair is very sensitive about operational costs, and obstacles such as pilot certification for Madeira, and high airport charges, would have no doubt formed part of the discussion, allowing Bernardo to highlight the fact that Easyjet managed both hurdles successfully. I reckon that Bernardo, ‘our man in Portugal’, has a done deal here … just watch this space.

(2nd September). ‘Page and Moy charters Athena for 2010 summer season’. Tour operator Page and Moy has exclusively chartered the cruise ship Athena for the 2010 Summer season. The 16,000 ton cruise ship has capacity for 550 passengers, has a swimming pool, two dining areas, a nightclub and a casino. During the charter the operator will run cruises from May 1st to the Baltic and Norwegian and Icelandic ports before offering cruises to Madeira, the Canary Islands, North Africa and Iberia in August. Page and Moy head of marketing Victoria Clarke said: “We’re delighted to be chartering the Athena for our summer 2010 programme". It’s been booked in for its next visit here in August 2010 for some time I believe, so someone knew this was going to happen long before this press release. I believe the Athena is registered on Madeira.

Finally, a late headline today : ‘Government Pays Homage To Nélio Mendonça And Rui Vieira – Funchal Central Hospital will now be called Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça, and the Botanical Gardens will be called Jardim Botânico Engenheiro Rui Vieira’. These were the results of the deliberations of the council of government that met today, presided over by president Alberto João Jardim, to honour these men. As a reminder :

(blog 14th July 2009) – ‘Dr. Nélio Mendonça Passed Away – Ex-president of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira was hospitalised. The Government Of Madeira Is Going To Declare Today 3 Days Of Official Mourning’. The doctor specialising in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and politician died aged 78 after illness. He was also president of Nacional Sports Club, and the founder of Madeira’s health service.

(blog 30th August 2009) – ‘Engineer Rui Vieira Died – The agronomist and politician was aged 83′. He was the first director of the Jardim Botânico (Botanic Gardens) of Funchal, and a Euro MP for the CDS / PP. He died yesterday of cancer.

(2nd September). ‘Promotions in the Portuguese market "are yielding good fruit" – Tourism bucks the national trend with the number of visitors from the mainland rising 34%’. The regional director of Madeira Islands Tourism highlighted that the focus on the domestic market to counter the crisis is working, with the number of Portuguese visitors growing 34 percent in June. "In the domestic market we are going against the tide, and we have seen a significant increase of tourists visiting us, as shown in the preliminary statistics from January to June this year, that grew 14 percent", said Raquel França. She admitted that there are decreases in other traditional markets for Madeira, where the United Kingdom visitors fell in the order of 22 percent, and Germany, with a fall between four and seven percent.

‘SBA Will Have Two Weekly Flights In October And November – The airline is launching the route Caracas – Madeira – Tenerife with two visits weekly’. The decision is the result of a ‘low season’. On Sundays the flight will depart from Venezuela at 7 pm, fly direct to Madeira for 7 am Monday. It will then leave 2 hours later for the Canary Islands, before flying back to Venezuela. The second flight will leave Caracas on Thursdays at 7.15 pm, flying to Tenerife, and then on to Madeira, leaving then at midday Friday to fly directly back to Caracas. In December and January the flight will revert to once weekly, and not include Tenerife in the schedule.

From today’s Jornal da Madeira . ‘Lobo Transports Over 74 Thousand Passengers In One Month – New statistics from Porto Santo Line return to show growth’. 74,301 to be exact, was a new record for the company that operates the ferry Lobo Marinho between Madeira and Porto Santo. The record was reached on 31st August, breaking all before, since transport between the two islands was established. August last year the number was 70,532 making an increase this year of 5.3%. The results show a recovery for the operating company, who say the the first 3 months of 2009 were best to "forget", having lost 8 thousand passengers compared to the same period in 2008. The recovery began with an unprecedented campaign of reduced price tickets, along with promotions and holiday packages, that in the first 8 months of this year improved on the passenger numbers from the same period last year. More passengers maybe, but at lower prices it remains to be seen how profitability will be affected.