Brussels Airlines will continue to fly to the Greek holiday island of Rhodes, which has been hit by severe forest fires, as planned for the time being, a spokesperson said on Sunday.
"Today's flight will continue as usual and there are currently no plans to cancel other flights," Brussels Airlines echoed. The Belgian airline has several flights a week to Rhodes. For example, tomorrow/Monday there is one flight, Tuesday there are two.
"We did notice quite a few cancellations on the flight to Rhodes today, partly because a tour operator had booked seats," the spokesperson added.
Dutch low-cost carrier Transavia also reported Sunday that it was still flying to Rhodes. Earlier in the day, tour operators TUI, Sunweb and Corendon announced they were suspending all trips to Rhodes. TUI and Corendon will do so until Tuesday, Sunweb until Monday/morning.
Credit: Belga
Due to the heavy forest fires in Rhodes, at least 19,000 tourists already had to be evacuated to safer places. Among them also some 70 Belgians who travelled with TUI and some nine Belgians who booked a trip with Sunweb.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday said it was closely monitoring the situation. The Ministry is officially aware of 70 tourists in Rhodes who have registered through their platform Travellers Online. Another 132 Belgians living in Rhodes have also been registered in the consular registers of the embassy in Athens.
The embassy has contacted those affected, advising them to exercise caution. Some 20 Belgian families already contacted the embassy or the foreign ministry asking for assistance.
