Source Diário de Notícias 17/11/2007

French tourism on Madeira via the airline 'Top of Travel' amounted to nearly 9 thousand visitors, up 39% on the previous year, and with more regular flights in 2008, there will be nearly 18 thousand seats available up until next October.

On 22nd December a weekly flight will commence between Paris and Madeira, which will run until 25th October 2008. Also planned from next 5th April, is a weekly flight between Nantes and Madeira, again up until the end of October. These two flights will be operated by the French company Europe Airpost.

Furthermore, 'Top of Travel' is going to promote Thursday charter flights from Lyon, Clermont -Ferrand, Le Havre, Deauville, Metz, Cherbourg, Châteauroux, Bordeaux, Dijon, Stick, Montpellier, Toulon, Mulhouse, Poitiers and Limoges. 

Also, Transavia (supposedly a low cost airline, that already operates flights between Amsterdam and Madeira), is in the process of negotiating two weekly flights between Paris and Madeira, hoped to commence in the 2nd quarter of 2008.

By my reckoning, that will take the number of countries accessable from Madeira through regular or semi-regular scheduled flights upto about 12, by the end of 2008.

Check them out here : http://www.madeira4u.com/m4u_Travel/travel_flights.html

If this expansion in tourism keeps up, Funchal will run out of hotels, and they will have to encourage tourists to stay on other parts of the island ... ouch! ... that will hurt! Or there again, maybe they can squeeze a few more high rise hotels into the area now known as Choca-Bloca, in west Funchal.