02 Jul 2024by James Chapple
Wildfires on the Greek island of Kos have prompted warnings from easyJet holidays and Jet2holidays, urging prospects to comply with the recommendation from their motels and native authorities within the occasion of any evacuation orders.
Firefighters have been tackling fires close to the vacationer city of Kardamena (Credit score: iStock)
EasyJet holidays mentioned it was carefully monitoring a “fast-evolving wildfire state of affairs” within the Kardamena space of the island, a sentiment echoed by Jet2holidays in an replace to its prospects.
In an replace issued at 10am on Tuesday (2 July), easyJet holidays mentioned it had been suggested by native authorities the wildfire “was being introduced underneath management”.
Tons of of firefighters on Monday (1 July) fought fires on Kos in addition to on the extra northerly island of Chios, supported by quite a few firefighting plane and helicopters.
Replace: Mayor of Kos thanks commerce for assist following wildfire
Based on stories in Greece’s nationwide press, greater than 50 wildfires had been reported in a 24-hour interval, prompting Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to warn of a “notably harmful” summer season for wildfires.
“We have now had an exceptionally tough June relating to climate circumstances, with excessive ranges of drought and unusually sturdy winds for this season,” Sky Information stories Mitsotakis as saying.
It comes after a difficult summer season final yr for Greece, particularly, and several other different locations within the southern Mediterranean after wildfires raged throughout the area, with the Greek island of Rhodes experiencing probably the most extreme penalties.
“We’re carefully monitoring the fast-evolving wildfire state of affairs within the Kardamena space of Kos, and dealing with our groups in vacation spot,” mentioned easyJet holidays in a message to prospects late on Monday night (1 July), with particular steering to friends who’ve been evacuated.
“For patrons who’ve been evacuated from their lodge, we now have members of our easyJet holidays workforce in any respect rendezvous factors, to offer additional assist and steering, so we ask our prospects to make themselves identified to those representatives,” the operator continued.
“We’d prefer to remind our prospects presently in Kardamena to proceed following the steering of their lodge and the native authorities, and proceed to test SMS and e mail for any updates from us.”
EasyJet holidays sought to reassure prospects travelling to Kos within the coming days that almost all of the island is unaffected by the fires and holidays are going forward as deliberate underneath “regular bookings phrases and circumstances”.
“We’ve proactively contacted prospects on account of journey to the impacted space of Kardamena, relating to their vacation,” the operator added. “We ask that prospects proceed to test their emails as we’ll be in contact if their vacation is impacted by the evolving state of affairs.”
Jet2holidays, in the meantime, issued an replace through the early hours of Tuesday morning (2 July), by which it mentioned it was conscious of the “ongoing state of affairs” round wildfires within the Kardamena space of Kos.
“The protection and wellbeing of our prospects and colleagues is all the time our first precedence and we wish to advise our prospects on the island to comply with the steering of the native authorities,” mentioned Jet2.
“Presently, our Jet2.com flights are on account of function as scheduled right now and the airport stays operational. Nonetheless, because of the state of affairs, the airport could also be congested and you might expertise longer than regular wait instances.”
Late final month, the International Workplace issued a wildfire warning for Greece following what’s believed to have been the earliest main summer season heatwave in recorded Greek historical past.
Elsewhere, firefighters in neighbouring Turkey fought quite a few fires close to Izmir and alongside the Turkish riviera over the weekend, with temperatures topping 40C.