When in January I kind of took the decision of not flying anymore from/to Madrid airport I couldn’t even imagine what was going to happen to me on coming back to this damned place.
But let’s begin from the beginning, and explain why I didn’t want to go to Madrid again.
12/07/07 : This was the first time I took a plane in my life. It was an Easyjet flight from Asturias to Madrid. I was looking forward to taking it, but I had to wait… just 3 hours. The previous flight, from Madrid to Asturias had problems and after taking off, it had to come back to Madrid.
14/07/07: Madrid-Frankfurt without any problem.
03/08/07: Frankfurt-Madrid without any problem.
13/07/08: Asturias-Madrid-Malta without any problem. Three successes in a row. Unbelievable!
03/08/08: I finished my holiday in Malta and I was coming back to Spain. The Vueling flight was supposed to take off at 2.15 but it did 2 hours later. In addition to that, the baggage lasted a lot of time in appear and that resulted in losing my flight to Asturias. So, I had to spend all the day in the airport, waiting for the next flight, that was 12 hours later. Great! There’s nothing as fun as spending a day in Barajas when you haven’t sleept the night before.
16/12/08: Stockholm-Madrid-Asturias. We arrived in Madrid on time despite that days there was a strike on Iberia, but the flight to Asturias was delayed 1 hour. Not a big deal!
09-10/01/09: It was time to go back to Sweden. We arrived in Madrid on time and 2 hours later I was in the plane to Stockholm as expected. But, when the flight was about to start, we were notified that the airport was closed due to weather conditions (it was snowing). We had to leave the plane and wait, and wait, and wait… The departure was programmed at 10.30. Each half an hour, they changed the departure time, until 15.30 when it was definitely cancelled. In that moment, I joined a queue and 4/5 hours later I could talk to someone of Iberia. They sent me to an hotel and gave me a new ticket for the following day (but, I was in the waiting list). After sleeping about 5 hours, I went again to the airport and 2 hours later than expected, I took the flight to Stockholm. Luckily, all the people in the waiting list could take the plane. But, I wasn’t going to Stockholm, but to Luleå, so this delay made me lost the flight to my final destination. And on Saturday there are only two flights from Stockholm to Luleå, but very early in the morning. So I had to buy a train ticket and start a 15 hours trip =) Instead of 12 hours, I did Asturias-Luleå in 2 days.
That was the day I took the decition of not coming back to Madrid-Barajas. Unluckily, I had to, since an agency organized my stay this summer in Florence.
In my way there, I had no problems, but on coming back…
I arrived from Rome on time, but my flight to Asturias was delayed 20 minutes because of the fog. “20 minutes is nothing after what happened to me in the past” I thought. But it had just started. One hour later we were in Asturias, but when we tried to land… the captain told us that it was impossible and that we were coming back to Madrid. Great! Madrid-Madrid in only 2 hours!
But was that all? Of course not! When arriving in Madrid, the Terminal 4 of the airport was completely dark. No light during one hour and we had to remain in the plane until it was solved. Then I was sent to the same hotel than in January and I’m not sure about it, but probably same room (or the same in the upper floor). This time I could sleep just 3 hours, since the flight was programmed for 7.30. No more problems. I arrived 10 hours later.
In 5 of 9 times I’ve been in Madrid airport I had problems. In the rest of my flights that didn’t involve this airport I never had any. Not even a little delay.
Madrid: NEVER AGAIN!!!
