Repatriation flights begin for tourists stranded on Rhodes

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Airlines and travel operators put on special flights on Monday for tourists stranded by wildfires on Rhodes, even as some continued to carry new holidaymakers to unaffected parts of the Greek island.

Tui, easyJet and Jet2 were on Monday organising a wave of repatriation flights to help fly home some of the estimated 10,000 British holidaymakers on the island.

But despite the scramble to organise flights, travel industry executives played down the long-term impact of the fires and extreme weather in Europe this summer. Many airlines were still flying to Rhodes on Monday, and there have been no signs of a wider impact on summer bookings.

The wildfires on Rhodes are among dozens authorities have been battling across the country. Greece has had an average of about 50 new fires daily for the past 12 days. “We are facing a new reality,” said Pavlos Marinakis, a government spokesperson.

Corfu, another popular destination with UK travellers, on Sunday issued its own evacuation order from some limited areas of the island. But the most difficult-to-contain fires have been on Rhodes. Tourists who were part of the largest ever evacuation operation in Greece over the weekend were forced to spend the night in makeshift accommodation provided in schools, conference areas and public buildings.

Almost 1,500 passengers have already departed the island on special flights back to the UK, Germany and Italy, according to Marinakis.

Holiday airline Jet2 and the UK airline easyJet both began operating repatriation flights on Sunday, with a further 1,000 seats being made available to travellers on Monday. Both operators have also cancelled some planned flights going to Rhodes.

Tour operator Tui said its first evacuated customers had landed back in the UK following overnight flights, as it cancelled flights leaving the UK for Rhodes until Tuesday.

Still, Olga Kefalogianni, the Greek tourism minister, encouraged people to continue flying to both islands. The affected areas in Rhodes account for just 10 per cent of the island’s hotels, according to a Greek official.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, said on Monday that it would continue with its scheduled flights to Rhodes and that its weekend bookings had been “very strong”. “I think people have booked their holidays, and they are going to continue to take them,” chief financial officer Neil Sorahan said.

Last week easyJet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said the heatwave did “not seem to be a deterrent” to holidaymakers. “[Customers] have air conditioning and are by the pool, the UK forecast being quite unstable . . . is not unhelpful,” he said.

It is not unusual for Greece to be hit by wildfires during the summer months, but extreme temperatures have heightened the risk. Temperatures over the past days have surpassed 40C in many regions of Greece and the national meteorological service forecasts that the heat will persist in the coming days.

Greece’s civil protection agency said that every region of the country was facing the threat of wildfires on Monday, ranging from “high, very high or state of alert”.

In 2018, fires in a coastal town east of Athens killed 104 people in a matter of hours. The tragedy has scarred Greek authorities who are now evacuating early, sometimes to the frustration of residents and tourists.