Spain’s busiest airport, Adolfo Suárez Madrid – Barajas (MAD), has been forced to close overnight due to adverse weather. Storm Filomena has put heavy snow in a large part of the country, especially known for its sunny weather. The difficult circumstances are expected to continue today.
Disruption since last night
The extensive disruption of the airport’s (and indeed the entire country)’s operations was the result of Spain’s heaviest snowfall in almost half a century. While flights managed for much of yesterday, the situation worsened later in the evening. The following tweet from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.com shows several planes in holding patterns just after 9pm.
Bad weather in Madrid, Spain. Hold or divert flights. Https://t.co/z6wgQrKsyP pic.twitter.com/HVF8Nu5ok7
– Flightradar24 (@ flightradar24) 8 January 2021
The adverse weather caused multiple diversions to the incoming flights and canceled after the planned departure. The airport operator, Aena, confirmed Twitter that performed 312 flights to and from Madrid yesterday. In addition, there were 27 cancellations and 26 distractions.
One flight that did slip through the cracks was the Iberia flight IB2800 to Pamplona. The service of the Spanish flag carrier carried the Real Madrid football team. ‘Los Blancos’ are facing a league match with CA Osasuna in Pamplona tonight.
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According to data from FlightRadar24.com, IB2800 arrived in Pamplona more than three hours late. Departure from Madrid took place at 22:39, with only 34 minutes later at 23:13.
Attempts to clear the airport of snow
As shown below, the airport has a major task to clear its runways and taxiway of snow. It shows the view from the cockpit of one of the last planes that could land in Madrid last night.
This is Barajas, one of the last planes to enter! @controladores #aviacion #Filomena pic.twitter.com/NuEbb30ywE
– Felix Piquero (@FelixPiquero) 8 January 2021
Such weather is extremely rare in Spain. This means that airport staff may not be as well prepared to deal with the conditions compared to more typically wintery countries like Canada. According to the BBC, another 20 cm of snow is expected in the Spanish capital today, so a threatening return to the airport is perhaps unlikely.
The coming hours and days
At the time of writing, FlightRadar24.com has only shown six flights currently traveling to Madrid. These are all transatlantic services from Latin American destinations, and they will probably find that they have to divert as well.
As for departing passengers, the Spanish flag carrier Iberia advises passengers not to travel to the airport. Meanwhile, his operator Aena said earlier that he would only release further information tonight. This gives him time to assess his options after the extra snow, which is expected to fall in Madrid today, arrives.
Due to adverse weather conditions, Madrid-Barajas Airport remains closed and operations will cease on Saturday the 9th until further notice. For your safety we kindly ask you not to go to the airport.
– Iberia_en (@Iberia_en) 9 January 2021
⚠️Ante the forecast of the nearest hours and security, the Aeropuerto AS #Madrid–#Barajas paralyzes its operations during all the Saturday 9.
Proximity information at 20:00 hours.
➡️ Check with the airline the status of the flight and do not go to the Airport. https://t.co/YzJ7va0uhT– Aena (@aena) 9 January 2021
As the airport is closed until further notice, and a significant amount of snow is expected, we can see that the disruption will continue all weekend or even next week. The BBC has stated that temperatures as low as -12 ° C are forecast for Madrid on Thursday.
Have you ever had to change your travel plans due to unfavorable weather? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.