Power outage disrupts travel for thousands of Dutch tourists in Spain, Portugal

A major power outage, which began around midday, has disrupted travel across Spain and Portugal, affecting thousands of Dutch vacationers. The outage has reportedly caused significant setbacks, leading to flight delays and cancellations at airports, while transportation services in several major cities have come to a standstill.

Several Dutch tour operators have reported a significant number of customers in the affected regions of Spain and Portugal. Sunweb and Eliza was Here each have 'thousands' of clients in the area, while De Jong Intra Vakanties has approximately 800 vacationers. De Jong Intra Vakanties has received a few calls from travelers, primarily concerning delays in their return flights to the Netherlands.

Corendon, another major travel organization, has yet to receive reports from travelers facing issues due to the power outage. The company is still assessing how many of its customers may be affected in the region.

According to a spokesperson for the Dutch travel industry association ANVR, "It’s difficult to estimate exactly how many Dutch vacationers are impacted by the outage, but it's clear that many people are in Spain and Portugal. The May holidays are a busy time, and these destinations are especially popular."

Earlier this month, Schiphol Airport noted that Spain was the most popular country for people departing from the Netherlands during the April and May school holiday period. Portugal ranked seventh in terms of passenger volume. Some 3.5 million people were expected to travel during the period, up from 3.3 million a year earlier.

The Lisbon Airport is unlikely to allow flights to land before 7 p.m. local time at the earliest, and Castellón Airport north of Valencia was also unavailable, according to European air traffic center Eurocontrol. Fewer aircraft were allowed to fly through the airspace over Madrid and Barcelona, though the airports in the two cities were gradually allowing more arrivals, the organization wrote in an update just before 4:30 p.m. in the Netherlands. Delays in Madrid were still considered to be high less than an hour earlier, though the “situation is improving” in Barcelona.

A handful of flights operated by TAP, KLM, and Transavia on routes between the Netherlands and airports in Spain and Portugal faced delays ranging from a few minutes to a few hours. Portuguese national airline TAP cancelled two flights from Schiphol Airport to Lisbon, and two more in the opposite direction. KLM cancelled a flight from Lisbon to its base outside of Amsterdam. RyanAir also scrapped a flight in each direction between Lisbon and Eindhoven Airport.