Storm Charles Cancels More Than 220 Flights at Lisbon and Faro as Portugal Goes on Alert

Storm Charles cancelled more than 220 flights at Lisbon and Faro on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, as Portugal’s government put the whole mainland on alert and shut schools for the day. By 9:20 a.m. local time, ANA Aeroportos de Portugal’s flight data showed 208 cancellations at Lisbon and 14 at Faro.

Madeira, where the storm passed overnight, had lost 16 flights by early morning, and Porto had 14 cancellations on its board for the day. TAP Air Portugal, the Lisbon-based flag carrier, accounted for most of the early cancellations.

Lisbon takes the biggest hit

The 9:20 a.m. figures, compiled from ANA’s arrivals and departures pages and reported by the Lusa news agency, split Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport into 108 cancelled departures and 100 cancelled arrivals. Faro, the Algarve’s airport, had seven of each, according to Diário de Notícias.

An earlier count from the same ANA data, published by Record, put Porto at seven departures and seven arrivals cancelled, 12 of them TAP flights and two Iberia. It listed Air France, Lufthansa, American Airlines and Emirates among the carriers with cancellations, with British Airways, easyJet, KLM, Air Canada, United, Azul and Pegasus later dropping Lisbon departures too.

At Madeira’s airport, the 16 cancellations were nine departures and seven arrivals on routes to and from Lisbon, Porto, Paris and Nantes, Observador reported, mostly TAP with a few Transavia France flights. The knock-on effect reached other parts of Europe: Riviera Radio, citing Flightradar24, reported a late-morning Nice to Lisbon flight cancelled.

More cancellations were expected through the day, and no updated total had been published at the time of writing, so the final count will be higher. Spain’s airports faced a separate disruption on the same day, the November 11 general strike.

What the warnings said

ANA warned on Tuesday that operations at Lisbon, Faro and Madeira would be constrained on Wednesday and that cancellations were expected, NewsAvia reported. It told passengers to check with their airline before leaving for the airport and flagged likely limits on road access.

The same day, Interior Minister Luís Neves declared a situation of alert for all of mainland Portugal from midnight to 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. The government closed schools and non-essential public services, suspended outdoor activities, shut parks and forests, and asked people to stay home where they could.

Portugal’s weather service, IPMA, forecast gusts of 62 to 75 mph (100 to 120 km/h) on the storm’s southern side, locally up to 87 mph (140 km/h), and more than 3.9 inches (100 mm) of rain in 24 hours in places. Over Madeira’s high ground, an IPMA meteorologist said gusts topped 81 mph (130 km/h) and more than 9.4 inches (240 mm) of rain fell in six hours.

By mid-morning the storm had split into two centers, one over the Lisbon area and one over the Algarve. IPMA cut the wind warning for Lisbon, Setúbal and Beja to orange, left Faro as the only district on red for wind, and kept red rain warnings for Lisbon, Setúbal, Beja and Faro until 6 p.m.

Why airlines cancel before the wind arrives

Much of Wednesday’s schedule was cut in advance: ANA flagged cancellations the day before, and TAP said it had already adjusted its schedule. A storm of this strength threatens more than one landing. Every airliner has a crosswind limit, and gusts that swing across the runway can push conditions past it even when the wind’s average speed looks manageable, which is why pilots want the wind on the nose.

Cancelling early also keeps aircraft and crews where the airline needs them for the recovery. A jet that diverts to another airport with a full cabin is out of position for the next morning, while a flight cancelled the night before leaves the plane at its base and passengers at home.

What passengers can claim

TAP issued a travel alert for November 10 and 11 saying the weather would affect its operation and that it had already adjusted its schedule. Passengers with tickets issued by November 10 for travel up to November 11 can move to a flight up to November 17 in the same cabin with no penalty.

EU air passenger rules cover every flight leaving Portugal, plus flights into the EU on an EU airline such as TAP. When a flight is cancelled, the passenger chooses between a refund and re-routing at the earliest opportunity, and the airline must provide meals and, for an overnight wait, a hotel.

Cash compensation is a different matter. The European Commission’s guidance says it is not owed for extraordinary circumstances, and names adverse weather as an example, so a storm cancellation like this one is unlikely to qualify.

Anyone flying through Lisbon, Faro or Madeira in the coming days should check the flight status with the airline before setting out, as ANA advised before the storm.