(10th September). ‘Jet2 to begin Manchester to Madeira service’. Budget airline Jet2.com is to start a new service to Madeira from Manchester Airport (UK). It said the flights to Funchal would operate every Monday during summer 2010 with fares starting at £49.99 one way including taxes. Jet2 said this this and other new services to Tunisia, Kos, Gran Canaria and Venice announced in recent weeks would create an extra 250 jobs. Ian Doubtfire, the airline’s managing director, said, “Madeira is a stunning island and an absolutely fantastic Summer holiday destination which I am sure will be extremely popular with our customers in the North West and beyond. “We are the only airline to offer direct scheduled services to Madeira from Manchester meaning that this service will benefit people from across the north." Andrew Harrison, Manchester Airport Commercial Director, said: “Jet2.com is going from strength to strength at Manchester Airport as they continue to expand their range of destinations with Madeira being the latest to go on sale. Madeira is an extremely popular holiday destination and will be a welcome addition to our summer schedule”. I got this from another source, but the Diário also covers it, saying that a 3 year €200,000 promotional investment has been made by tourism, and that flights will start next February, but I couldn’t find any then. I have checked Summer flights, and you can book flights now, but I didn’t see many flights at the headline price. JET2
(9th September).
Pictured But not named : The ‘Pirata Azul’.
‘Historics Of ‘The Line’ Are Still Around’. Long before the days of the current ferry ‘Lobo Marinho’, other vessels worked the route between Madeira and Porto Santo in the early 1980’s, transporting people and supplies, and starting the real development of Porto Santo. The ‘old school’ continue to operate, one with more success than the others. The ‘Pirata Azul’, which now takes tourists up and down the Rio Douro, now has a capacity for 231 passengers, and is one of the great attractions of the wine making region of Portugal. That ship could make the archipelago crossing in 3 hours. The ‘Independência’, working here in 1983, was Norwegian built. It is now based in Sétubal. The ‘Alizur-Amarillo’ also remains active, owned by a Croatian company, sailing the Adriatic Sea. Another, ‘Pátria’, has been rebaptised, and is now the ‘Sea Flower 2’, ‘and is currently operating in the seas of South Korea. The first every actual ferry to undertake the Porto Santo route was the ‘Lusitânia Expresso’, and is currently in Venezuela, making connections between the islands of that country, that are found in the Caribbean Sea. In more recent times, Porto Santo Line has had the right to the route, firstly with ‘Lady of Mann’, then ‘Lobo Marinho 1′. The current ´job holder’, ‘Lobo Marinho 2’, has been in service since 2003, and was purpose built for the job.
(8th September). ‘TAP Launches Low Cost To 34 Cities’. TAP, Portugal’s favourite airline, is making 300,000 cheap seats available for European travel to 34 cities. €59 is the starting price. Also (and they were outside of Europe last time I saw a map) the promotion includes destinations in Africa and the Americas. The prices shown include taxes, but you have to fly from Lisbon or Porto, booking by the end of this month, and travelling between 1st November and 31st March.
‘Pilots Call Strike For 24th & 25th September – Paralysation motivated by intolerable discontentment by the pilots of TAP’. The trade union representing TAP airline pilots has announced a further strike, after a vote was taken this week, with 85% of those present at the meeting in agreement with strike action.