More than a dozen flights to Madeira were diverted or cancelled yesterday due to bad weather at Funchal airport.

Worst affected was Jet2, which had to divert flights from London, Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Nottingham to other destinations including the Canary Islands, where passengers had to spend the night.

While some airlines were able to land at Funchal yesterday afternoon, TUI, easyJet, British Airways and Ryanair were also forced to divert or cancel services.

Funchal is renowned for high winds and its airport is said to be one of the most trickiest places to land in the world.

In an update to passengers this morning, Jet2 apologised to passengers for the continued delay to their flights and thanked them for their patience.

It said passengers have been put on new flights today, adding: “It is rare for our schedules to be disrupted like this. Our dedicated operations team are working hard behind the scenes at our UK-based HQ and on behalf of us all, we’re sorry again for the inconvenience this brings. We will have you on your way as soon as we can.”