Tourists returning from Madeira, ‘it’s the end of a nightmare’

(ANSA) – ROME, AUGUST 18 – Tired, exasperated, by the long wait to return to Italy and by the “inconveniences suffered”, some forced to face additional expenses for accommodation, food, even a thousand euros and more. Among them several children and some people who needed medicines for treatments. Not only Romans but also from Milan, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo and Campania. Some tourists said that not all managed to return with the emergency flight but here the numbers vary: some said 20-25 and others, instead, 30-40 remained in Madeira. These are some of the testimonies of the approximately 200 Italians who returned to Fiumicino this evening, after being stuck in the Portuguese archipelago since August 15, due to bad weather: “This nightmare is over – the story of one of them – They cancelled our flight twice. Fortunately we managed to take this flight unlike others who remained there, at least 20-25 of us. The most serious inconveniences are not having had assistance and guarantees on an economic level for support for hotels or other flights. We have sustained other expenses independently. Last night we learned that the embassy had fortunately intervened for the extraordinary flight”. “When they told us about the cancellation we immediately found ourselves disoriented, at 10 pm: a long line of taxis to go and look for accommodation. For three people, between accommodation, food and taxis, we have spent more than a thousand euros in these days”, reported a tourist from Rome. “We slept on the floor in the airport, we are tired – said a Roman tourist instead – We had to make do with everything”. “We organized a WhatsApp group with about a hundred of us stranded tourists to coordinate and inform each other – another traveler reported – because official communications are not arriving, only rumors that were going around. There have been many inconveniences. Last night at 3, suddenly, while we were sleeping, the communication arrived that there would be a flight at 13 and that we thought it was only reserved for our recovery and instead it was open for sale”. In the evening, Wizz Air, in a note, specified that the rescue flight from Madeira to Rome had “transported all the passengers who had rebooked the flight or who had purchased the ticket for this emergency flight. The total number of people transported was 207. The airline waited until the last minute for another 30 people who had regular tickets for this flight, but unfortunately they did not show up at the gate”. The airline recalls that the problems for the return of passengers were linked to bad weather, in particular the strong wind “however Wizz Air has done and continues to do everything possible to bring home all the stranded passengers”. (ANSA).