The power outage that the peninsula has suffered this Monday has affected air and rail connections, which is causing delays and cancellations in flights scheduled for this Tuesday. Many Lanzarote residents have been unable to fly to the island, so they are trapped in different airports such as Madrid waiting to catch the next plane.
One of the Lanzarote residents who is in Madrid and who intended to return to Lanzarote on the Iberia Express flight scheduled for 9:40 p.m. could not do so after it was canceled. Due to the blackout, getting to the Madrid-Barajas Airport became an odyssey, since according to her, "the traffic lights didn't work, nor the subway, and sirens were heard all the time and we had to walk an hour and a half until a taxi driver agreed to take us to the airport, Madrid was a chaos".
The Madrid airport is currently overwhelmed by the number of people who have spent the night sleeping in it waiting to return to their destinations. For their part, many others have arrived this Tuesday hoping to fly. "There is total chaos at the airport and in our case, who had to catch a flight to return to Lanzarote, they didn't give information and they assigned us a boarding gate but then they told us that we had to go to another one that was very far away", declares the affected person.
"People were very nervous and angry, especially families who had children because they were crying," she continues. Almost at eleven o'clock at night, the airline informed the passengers that the flight was canceled, so they went to the check-in counter. "There it was a disaster because the people from other flights also affected joined and I think it is outrageous that they don't tell you on the spot that the flight is canceled and that they offer us lodging because we were waiting a long time until they gave us the possibility of changing the flight for this Tuesday and giving us a hotel", she says.
This lack of information was also largely due to the inoperability of mobile telephony that did not allow workers to contact each other. In her case, the Lanzarote resident was able to get to the hotel almost at four in the morning where, in addition, there was also a long line of people waiting.
This Tuesday, the passenger is still on the waiting list on a flight scheduled for 6:00 p.m. this afternoon, although she is not sure if she can get on it. "There are people changing flights because some people were offered a flight on May 1st and there was even a couple who were going to Lanzarote to spend their holidays and since they were offered the flight for Thursday they are thinking of changing their destination to Cádiz", she points out.
This situation of confusion caused by the lack of electricity supply also shows good actions of the people. "We saw two girls who were going to the gym and decided to start regulating traffic," she says. In addition, many merchants and citizens were afraid of the arrival of the night, since this could lead to looting or robberies, since without electricity the alarms could not be connected or many of the blinds closed. However, the night passed quietly without relevant incidents in the peninsula.
Flights affected by the blackout
The Iberia Express flight in which the affected person had to fly, which was scheduled to leave yesterday from Barajas to Lanzarote at 9:40 p.m. had to be canceled "due to long waits both in the airspace of Seville and in that of Lisbon, which are the two routes through which it can operate", they explained to La Voz from the airline.
As a result of said cancellation, the first flight this morning with Iberia Express between Lanzarote and Madrid at 07:00 hours also had to be suspended, since it was going to be carried out with the plane that could not arrive yesterday.
"Customers have been offered a hotel, and some have already been accommodated on other flights. Everyone has been offered the option of change or refund, for those who flew yesterday and also today," they explain from Iberia.
A spokesperson for Air Europa has explained to La Voz that its flights departing from or arriving in Lanzarote have not suffered cancellations or delays.
"As we have the headquarters in the Balearic Islands, we did not suffer cuts and we were able to maintain our usual pace. The flight with the most delay that we have had has not exceeded two hours," explained the Air Europa spokesperson.
For its part, Vueling assures that "operations are returning to normal after the power outage, although some flights may still be affected, we are working to minimize any remaining alteration".
In addition, they indicate that "passengers who may have been affected were contacted with their alternatives, prioritizing that passengers leave as soon as possible to their final destination".
