‘Armas Making Losses – The regional government has already granted half a million Euros in support, €28 per passenger disembarking’. “Scammed”, the Spanish ferry company that owns and operates the route Portugal – Madeira – Canary Islands has been hiding losses of two million Euros. President Jardim is not happy that Madeira has been the victim of a cover-up, and with the purpose of the threats of the Spanish owner Naviera Armas, of not performing the second trip between Madeira and Portimão, on the pretext that the port authorities of the region have imposed operational limitations that make the extra trip unviable. In fact the whole operation is proving to be an economic disaster, with Naviera Armas accruing a loss that at this time is around €2 million. The company have publicly stated that each week the ferry incurs costs of €160,000, in personnel, fuel, administration etc. But an analysis of the passenger numbers and journey prices over the period the service has been running, shows that takings from the 32,000 passengers (plus cars) add up to just €6 million, compared to costs of €7.8 million. The Diário concludes that the ‘Volcan de Tijarafe’ is short of over 500 passengers per week in order to be a profitable operation. I thought right from the start that it was quite remarkable that this ferry could operate profitably from passenger revenue, and put its viability down to freight revenues, without really having any idea of what that would amount to. A small island like this is never going to contribute much to address the massive shortfall in passenger numbers, so it looks like the future of this great asset is in the balance. There is a schematic presentation of the facts and figures here :
http://www.dnoticias.pt/diario/fotos/110509/economia.jpg
The Portuguese airline TAP has started an advertising campaign in London, aimed at attracting Brits to Madeira for the bargain price of €48 (all inclusive), from Gatwick and Heathrow.It is using London taxi cabs to display the promotional material about it’s daily flight from London, in response to tough competition from Easyjet, and emphasises that it offers more sociable flight times than it’s competitor.
Another regular visitor to Madeira is to go into retirement. The cruise ship ‘Black Prince’, owned by the group Fred Olsen will be taken out of international service in October, and is then destined for a more leisurely life in the waters of Venezuela. It made its first visit to Madeira in May 1967, and its last visit on 6th October will be the 586th.
On 24/04/09 IGA – Investimentos e Gestão da Água, S.A, informed the public that the route known as “Levada da Serra do Faial” (Serra do Faial Levada Walk), will have limited access in the section between Lamaceiros and Lombo da Raiz, in the parish of Santo António da Serra, Machico. For safety reasons, as a result of the maintenance work to be undertaken by IGA, this section of the footpath will have limited access and may eventually be closed. These works are scheduled to start on 15 May, and should be finished by August 2009. (Thanks very much to Paul for that bit of information).
Sunday’s main headline : ‘Copenhagen For 198 Euros – Cimber Sterling launches a new service from Denmark to Madeira starting 31st August’. The company has already put the flights on sale through its website. The new airline is the result of a merger of the regional airline Cimber Air with Sterling Airlines, which closed due to bankruptcy at the end of last year, having already provided a weekly flight to Madeira from the Danish capital. The new service will be once a week, on Mondays, using a Boeing 737-700, with capacity for around 180 passengers. The cheapest price found by the Diário was €198 return, but there are 4 tariffs available, the most expensive working out at €997. SATA, the Azores based airline, has already announced plans for a service on the same route, and a spokesman reacting to the news said nothing will change the confirmed plans. The article doesn’t say specifically whether it is a year round service, but in the spirit of good research I went to the website of Cimber, and checked for flights in November and January, and found them to be bookable, but the article itself mentions just two Winter flights.
