In response to the Rhodes wildfires in the central and south eastern parts of the island, transport secretary Mark Harper has met with UK tour operators and airline officials to discuss the repatriation of tourists from the areas affected by the fires.
Taking to twitter, Mark Harper stated that “This evening I spoke to British Airways, TUI, Jet2, Ryanair and easyJet to discuss their response to the Rhodes fires, I welcome the additional flights they’re putting on to help bring British travellers home safely.”
Operators and airlines have added more repatriation flights to bring holidaymakers back.
Jet2 and Jet2 Holidays operated four flights on Monday (24 July) evening, two flights to Leeds Bradford, one to Manchester and one to Birmingham. A repatriation flight from Rhodes to Belfast is set to depart this evening (July 25.)
In a statement, Jet2 and Jet2 Holidays highlighted that, “We cancelled all flights and holidays due to depart to Rhodes up to and including Sunday 30th July, to give customers assurance and to avoid putting further pressure on the island’s infrastructure. We have contacted affected customers with regards to their refund and rebooking options and if they wish to receive a refund, we will process this quickly.
We will still fly those aircraft to Rhodes, but with no customers onboard, so that we can continue to bring our customers back to the UK on their scheduled flights, as well as any additional Jet2 customers who wish to return to the UK.”
TUI operated six repatriation flights on Monday, three of these flights were for UK tourists. These TUI flights returned holidaymakers to Gatwick, Manchester, and Birmingham.
TUI have also cancelled all flights to Rhodes up to 30 July. Offering customers the opportunity to switch destinations, cancel their trip or reorganise for a different date.
In a statement on twitter, TUI highlighted that “guests with bookings whose holidays start in the coming days up to and including Sunday 30 July can rebook for other destinations or cancel their trip free of charge. We therefore encourage customers with a planned holiday to Rhodes within this period to switch to other destinations.”
On Monday, easyJet operated two repatriation flights to Gatwick. easyJet are continuing to operate as normal across their nine flights from the UK to Rhodes. easyJet have stated that the airline is keeping the situation under review.
The low-budget airline has highlighted that customers booked to travel to and from Rhodes until Saturday 29 July can transfer for free to another date or can request a voucher for the value of their unused flight.
easyJet holidays issued a statement, highlighting “easyJet holidays have sadly had to cancel easyJet holidays packages departing up to and including Tuesday 25 July, and customers will receive a full refund. We are proactively contacting easyJet holidays customers due to travel up to and including Saturday 29 July to confirm their options.”
