Jet2 cancels all flights to Rhodes as wildfires sweep through Greek island

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Jet2 has cancelled all flights and holidays to Rhodes as wildfires continue to devastate the Greek island. Thousands of people, residents and tourists were evacuated on Saturday from at least six villages while the British Embassy in Athens has urged Brits to leave the area.

The total number of people evacuated or redirected due to the ongoing blaze has reached 19,000, the Greek government has confirmed.

This morning, Jet2 announced that it had cancelled all flights and holiday that were due to depart for the island today. The airline said it will still fly the planned aircrafts out, but with no passengers on board, so that it can bring customers back to the UK, the Mirror reports. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. In a statement, the airline said: "We have cancelled all flights and holidays that are due to depart to Rhodes today (five flights in total).

We will be contacting affected customers to update them, and to let them know that they will be provided with a full refund and the opportunity to rebook. "We will fly those five aircraft to Rhodes with no customers onboard so that we can bring customers back to the UK on their scheduled flight." The Rhodes wildfire was initially confined to the island's mountainous area but began spreading on Saturday to the more heavily populated central eastern side amid heatwave conditions.