Delayed or cancelled flight from Fuerteventura

Wind and visibility are the weather that matter here. Fuerteventura has no low-visibility procedures: under the rules ENAIRE publishes for the airport, the tower stops clearing flights when visibility drops below 800 metres (or the runway visual range below 550 metres) and the procedure is cancelled only once visibility is back above 1,000 metres. Saharan dust (calima) is what usually brings it down; AEMET says dust over the Canaries peaks in February, with a smaller rise in summer. On 17 January 2022, with calima and fog over the islands, Aena reported a flight from Frankfurt diverted from Fuerteventura to Gran Canaria, and on 9 April 2026 wind or poor visibility stopped two inbound flights, from Tenerife North and Gran Canaria, from landing, and both went back to where they came from, RTVC reported. In the calima of February 2020, Aena said on 23 February that 360 flights had been affected across the eight Canary airports. Weather like this can count as an extraordinary circumstance, so compensation may not be due, but the airline must still look after you, and a plane that cannot land here delays the flight home it was due to operate.

Strikes are the other cause. Spain's Ministry of Transport set minimum services, with Fuerteventura among the airports covered, for the strike at Azul Handling, which handles Ryanair group flights, that began on 1 October 2025, and for Groundforce's stoppages on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 27 March 2026. The Commission says strikes by air traffic controllers or airport staff may be extraordinary, and that a strike by the airline's own staff is not; handling companies working for an airline are not addressed directly, so make the claim and let the airline prove its case.

What does pay: a strike by the airline's own pilots or cabin crew, which the EU Court of Justice ruled in 2021 is not extraordinary, and ordinary technical faults. An airline can blame bad weather that hit the same aircraft earlier in the day only if it shows a direct link to your delay.

The airline owes you care at Fuerteventura whatever caused the delay. Ask at the gate or at the airline information desks, which Aena lists on Floor 1 in the boarding area: Atlántica Handling (for Binter), Aviapartner, Groundforce and Ryanair. Aena also has virtual help points on Floor 0 in check-in and arrivals, and on Floor 1 by gates 11 and 12 and gates 19 and 20. The airport's published operating hours run from 07:00 to 23:00 local time, so a flight held late into the evening can be moved to the next morning, and then the airline owes you a hotel and transport to it. There is no hotel at the terminal; the nearest, El Mirador de Fuerteventura on Playa Blanca beach, is about 5 minutes away by car. If the airline gives you nothing, buy what is reasonable and claim it back with the receipts.

Claiming yourself costs nothing. Send the claim to the airline that operated the flight, using its own claim form, with your booking reference and the times you actually arrived. If it refuses, or has not answered after a month, complain to AESA, Spain's aviation safety agency, which is also the official dispute body for air passengers: for flights from 2 June 2023 its decision binds the airline, and you must file within one year of your claim to the airline. Spanish law's general limit for personal claims is 5 years.

Flying home to the UK on a UK or EU airline, your flight is also covered by the UK rules, and if you go to court in England, Wales or Northern Ireland the limit is 6 years (5 in Scotland). You can be paid only once for the same disruption, so claim under the EU rules that apply to a flight from Spain.

Or hand it to AirHelp, which works on a no win, no fee basis: if it wins, it keeps 35% of the compensation including VAT, plus a further 15% if it has to go to court; if it does not win, you pay nothing. Keep your booking reference and boarding pass, screenshots of the delay or cancellation messages, the reason the airline gave you, and receipts for anything you bought while you waited.

New EU rules, Regulation (EU) 2026/2202, apply from 23 October 2027; for any flight before then, today's rules on this page apply.