Jazzie - Thomson do both holidays and just flights only to Madeira.

Have a look on their website first or call them and see if they fly direct to Madeira from Brum or Manchester. I think they must if they are catering for the package tour market but you could look at just booking a flight.

However most of the major tour operators fly to Madeira so why not just have chat to your local agent and find out which airline they use.

In addition to BA I use TAP which is the Portugese National Airline. They fly direct from Gatwick to Madeira but I am not sure about whether they fly from regional airports .

If your parents want the best hotel you cannot beat the Porto Santa Maria for the best position in Funchal. Most of the other hotels are some way out from the centre of things.

Hi there

We are planning to be in Madeira in April as well so I have been doing a lot of research on the net. There are 12 regional UK airports including Birmingham and Manchester. See link below:

www.madeira-portugal.com/UK/flights.html

I found this link via www.strawberryworld.com

We can unfortunately not fly directly to Madeira from South Africa. I do hope that this will change soon.

best regards

Quidditas

HI Jazzie

The main charter airlines fly direct from Manchester to Madeira,you can choose from Monarch, First Choice,Exel, Thompson etc. but only on Mondays.Expect to pay about £250 p.p.at Easter time for flight only,they would be better taking a package if they require accomodation as well.

B. A. were also going to start a service using GB Airways out of Manchester at about £200 -this was going to start in May 2005 then popstponed to Sept but seems to have disappeared,does anyone know what has happened to this?

Regards

hi,

I was also looking for a package for parent's holiday. After a lot of research on the net looking for Glasgow departures, Opodo came up with an offer on a First Choice holiday package, (cheaper than the First Choice site). They offer regional departures. Our flights are on Mondays. At £399 (plus fuel surcharge etc.) for 7 nights B and B at the Hotel Porto Maria, which is well recommended on Tripadvisor. I think this sounds good value as my parent's old friends recently stayed there and paid more than this. They loved it. We will be there for an inclusive Christmas Dinner and totally looking forward to it. Good Luck.