Faro - flight delays??

[carolyn]

Saw this article on the Algarve in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday 23rd September:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti ... ummer.html

What puzzled me was the reference to the "major delays in and out of Faro". Having travelled to and from Faro for at least 7 years, 4 times a year from Luton, Stanstead and Gatwick, we have never experienced anything like the long delays the article seems to be referring to. We have had occassional short delays of about an hour, but that is all. If delays of this length were the norm, I would have thought they would have arisen as a topic on the forum long ago. We have regularly managed door to door times of less than 6 hours (from Herts to CVO)

Have we been lucky? Would be interested to hear the views of the rest of you

[EMM]

I agree in the last 12 trips I doubt that the delays at " Faro " added up to mote than 90 mins in total.

Wish I could say the same about Bristol.( 2 hrs in July and we were supposed to be on one of the first flights of the day ).

[DaveK]

Same here. Of the many trips over the past few years I can only recall one instance of a delay of about 45 minutes and this was not the fault of the airport or airline. The Eurocontrol centre at Brussels lost, found and re-lost our flight plan so would not allow engines to be started. We had boarded the aircraft in pleanty of time for the normal departure slot.

[fmm]

The only time in the last 3 years that we were delayed more than half an hour was when all the power at Luton airport was lost and we were stuck at Faro for 7 hours - hardly the fault of Faro Airport though!

[EMM]

Just read the article, do these journalists have a clue " quaint hillside villages like Silves and Loule " ??

[Sharen Crane]

Flying out of Faro on Tuesday I noticed just two flights with delays, neither of which were for the UK. We have had the odd delay but they have been minutes rather than hours!

[Bristle Si]

Been travelling to and from Faro for 8 years now, from/to Bristol with EJT, with no delays.

[Mike,Chislehurst]

I think the writer was referring to the flight he was on here after reading the link and not just a general Faro problem

[laserblazer]

The whole article was rubbish. The journalist obviously knows little about the Algarve!

[ceh]

The only delay that I can remember at Faro over the last 9 years was when a small plane crash landed at Faro and I think we had a delay of an hour or two whilst the debris was cleared from the runway. Otherwise no problems to Luton, Gatwick, Bristol or Bournmouth. (Unlike from other destinations such as Tunisia).

[Phil]

In 19 years of travel to CVO my flights to and from Faro have been generally good.

However, I did have the unfortunate experience of flying back from Faro 3 days after 9/11. And what an experience it was!!

Just about every flight was delayed by 6 to 8 hours on average and our flight boarded about 7 hours late, then we had a technical fault. After attempting to fix it we were told a part had to be flown out from the UK the next day. We then had to wait for the baggage handlers and buses to get us back tp the terminal. This took so long that the cabin crew served the inflight meal we should have had in the air! By the time we got back to the terminal we had sat on the plane longer than the flight to Gatwick would have taken!! And with no airconditioning!!

The lucky ones were taken off to hotels for a few hours but some had to sit around the airport for another 9 hours or so. By the time we landed in Gatwick we were some 36 hours late!!

But at least we were safe. Not like those poor soles in the US.

[snaj1]

We've flown into Faro 3 times and other family on flights out of other airports.
We have had one delay of an hour in all our flights out of Faro. Technical problems with the plane, so hardly the fault of
the airport.
HOwever we have had delays at the UK airports on more than one occasion!!
Snaj