With a harbour teeming with anticipation as another cruise liner made its debut stopover in the Port of Funchal, both the Norwegian Star’ and ‘Corinthia,’ were turned away today due to the second pilot strike this month.
Seadream 1 has already cancelled her Madeira stopover for tomorrow.
This is the second wave of strikes by port pilots that has raised concern with APRAM – Administration of Ports of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, as so far, five cruise liner dockings have been cancelled due to industrial action, resulting in the loss of 10,500 passengers.
However, Paula Cabaço, President of APRAM has naively stated that she has already tried to make the pilots’ union and the port authorities aware of the fact that at this time, given the current political situation in the country, “it is not possible to continue with negotiations,” having therefore asked for the suspension of this strike until the political conditions for the resumption of talks are met.
It should be noted that ‘Corinthia’ was one of the 19 debuts scheduled for this year. Further scheduled debuts are the ‘Norwegian Viva,’ on the 18th, the ‘AIDAcosma,’ on the 26th, and the ‘Seven Seas Grandeur,’ on the 29th.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
