Funchal Airport

Having read previous reviews arrived early. The easyjet check-in did not open until less than 2 hours prior to takeoff. Once open check-in was slow but steady. Airport security adequate with delays minimal. Staff were all professional and friendly. Limited eating facilities airside but plenty of seating. By all accounts Mondays are extremely busy with the airport very busy. Fortunately I avoided Monday and the experience was pleasant.

Arrival no airbridges at Funchal aircraft parked on stand almost directly outside terminal building. Terminal is quite large for a regional airport and of a modern design. Passport control seemed quick and efficient in all queues apart from mine I guess I was just unlucky in getting the fussiest immigration officer in Madeira I eventually hopped over the ropes to the next desk and was processed immediately. Bags arrived quickly and I reckon the whole process from disembarkation to clearing customs took no more than 15 minutes albeit the airport wasn't busy at the time. Departure - no major problems. Just two check-in desks open for my flight so a queue built up quickly and only one member of staff carrying out security / boarding card checks en-route to the airside area. Once airside plenty of retail opportunities but limited seating both in the terminal area and at the departure gates. Passport control has several automated e-passport lanes in addition to good old fashioned immigration officers. Toilets were clean. All in all the departure experience was quick and painless but this was on a quiet Saturday morning and apart from my half-full A319 there was only one other small turboprop aircraft on the apron. From reading other reviews it seems like the airport struggles if several flights depart at around the same time.

Spent 6 horrible hours yesterday trying to depart from Funchal. Completely agree with previous comments on the lengthy queues as the airport failed to deal competently with the Monday departure of about eight flights to the UK. Passengers on our flight (Jet2 to Manchester) suffered the added frustration of being advised by the display that the aircraft was boarding at its expected time. Passengers passed through passport control only to arrive at the jammed departure gates area for British flights and eventually be told that the aircraft was not even at Funchal having diverted to Porto Santo. Clearly nobody thought to override whichever computer thinks that the airport runs smoothly every day. Eventually we got away nearly four hours late but at least three of these could have been spent in less cramped conditions.

This used to be a lovely airport but it is now so busy on a Monday it is absolutely diabolical. We arrived at the terminal on 8th October over two hours before flight departure before our flight was listed on the departures board. We walked up and down until we found Easyjet queue. We then waited in this check-in queue for just over an hour! We then spent 55 minutes in the boarding pass check and security queues. After then passing through passport check queue (not to bad) we then entered the bedlam in the gates lounge. The queues for each gate was so long it was difficult to move around and find the end of the queue for our flight. All these huge queues were so slow we would have missed our flight had it not been delayed by headwinds on the journey from UK.

Seemed OK on arrival but just flown home from there and stood in a queue that snaked round departure check in for over an hour just to be allowed up escalator to join another queue for security. Only three staff on duty on a Monday - apparently one of the most busy days. Then joined another queue for passport control- beware- by the time the information boards were asking our flight to go to passport control passengers were already boarding the plane! My advice don't waste time shopping ignore airport instructions and get through security and passport control ASAP - there is a coffee bar and loos beyond that point but don't expect to be able to sit down for a couple of hours!

Travelled from Funchal airport on Mon 29 Oct at midday. Our transfer picked us up from hotel at 09.45 for a 20 minute trip to airport. Thereafter we queued at Easyjet drop off baggage for 40 minutes! Next queue was more than a joke with only 1 person checking passports for two queues for entry to the security area. Feeling relieved we could then board the up escalators we then had to join a further queue which snaked around the security hall - unbelievable. Finally getting through to the departure lounge there was yet another queue - yes another passport check. Once we got through this there was no time to queue up to buy a bottle of much needed water or go to the loo. Throughout this time we observed a number of elderly people in distress or receiving medical attention presumably due to the heat and inability to stand for long periods in queues. Having read some of the previous reviews this situation has existed for some time. Do the Madeiran authorities not realise the problems; they need to take action now to address these issues. The lesson here is don't upset holidaymakers as we are liable to take our custom elsewhere which would be a shame as Madeira is a lovely place and very friendly.

On a quiet time this airport is a real pleasure quick check in and short walk to the plane. However when it is busy (and this might just mean 3 planes) it can descend into chaos check in hall full with long queues and baggage slow check in staff don't seem to know what they're doing long queues at security and irritated unhelpful staff. One thing I don't understand about this airport all the planes pull up right in front of the gates and 80% of the time we can walk directly to the plane but sometimes they insist on putting passengers into cattle service buses for a pointless and unpleasant 10m drive - weird and costly.

This must be one of the worst airports catering for mainly holiday travelers. Inbound ok. Outbound a nightmare. Arrived 10.20am on 2 July for return flight to NCL at 12.35pm. Check in not bad but then joined 20 yard queue to get boarding pass checked. This kept starting /stopping because area upstairs could not cope with number of people trying to queue for security check. Once upstairs then Disney queue to go through security. Despite this saw several people set off beeps from gates but just waved through. Then queue for passport control then herded into space for 5 flight queuing to get on planes. No seats whatsoever available as all taken by waiting passengers. Then queued for embarkation gate to get into a bus to drive 20 yards to plane. Other flights passengers simply walking same distance to their planes. In the 2 hours spent in this airport we actually were able to sit down for less than 5 minutes.

An great airport plenty of clean facilities. This airport has shops coffee areas and smoking areas. It is a pleasant airport with friendly staff.

No separate baggage drop for Speedy-boarding slow-motion check-in together with people who hadn't done on- line check-in. 40 mins to drop off baggage with queues at every stage. Gate staff didn't bother to make it clear where the speedy-boarding queue was there was confusion with families arriving later with buggies thinking they didn't need to queue pushing ahead of those who'd paid extra. The mess here and reduction in flights to Madeira makes us wonder whether they realise they need tourists.