Greece Fires: latest on cancelled services and repatriation flights from Rhodes to Manchester Airport

Airline companies have given updates on their handling of flights to and from the Greek airport Rhodes to Manchester. This comes as wildfires have forced thousands to leave their homes. 

Four airlines operate return flights from Manchester to Rhodes. These are easyJet, Ryanair, Tui and Jet2. 

All four companies were asked by ManchesterWorld for their latest update, with some of them suspending departure flights to the Greek island for at least the next several days. Each recommend getting in touch with your airline to find out the latest information. 

Jet2.com and Jet2 Holidays

The company has announced that all flights from Manchester Airport to Rhodes have been cancelled up to and including Sunday July 30. These flights will still fly to Rhodes but will be empty in order to pick up passengers on their scheduled services back to Manchester and other UK airport. 

The company also announced that a repatriation flight departed from Manchester on July 24.  

A spokesperson for Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: "By the end of today (Wednesday 26th July), Jet2.com will have operated 20 flights to the UK from Rhodes so far this week – a combination of repatriation flights and scheduled flights - which have continued to meet the demand we have seen.

 "We continue to fly aircraft to Rhodes with no customers onboard, so that we can 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.

 "Our hugely expanded team of colleagues in Rhodes, highly visible in their red uniforms, continue to be present throughout resorts and at Rhodes Airport to look after our customers. We know that many customers have been through a difficult time, however we have continued to work hard to look after everyone, and we are extremely grateful to our teams for their hard work.

 "All flights and holidays to Rhodes remain cancelled up to and including Sunday 30th July. We have already contacted affected customers with regards to their refund and rebooking options.

 "It is very clear how much people want to go on their well-deserved holidays, as the number of people rebooking holidays for this summer is hugely encouraging. We thank every single customer for their patience, understanding and loyalty."

TUI

A TUI UK&I spokesperson said: "Our teams in Rhodes have been working tirelessly to support customers impacted by the wildfires in south-eastern parts of the island. We’ve brought hundreds of people home and hundreds more will be travelling back to the UK on flights today.

"We appreciate how distressing and difficult it’s been for those who had to evacuate their hotels and curtail their holidays. And we also understand those due to travel to Rhodes may be concerned about how their holidays could be affected. We’re continuing to monitor the situation and have made some changes to our holiday programme in the coming days. We’d like to reassure customers their health and safety is our top priority and re-iterate that we are constantly reviewing the situation and will provide any new updates as soon as we are able.

• Scheduled return flights from Rhodes to the UK – will continue to operate as planned.

• Up to and including Friday 28th  July – no outbound flights will operate to Rhodes - all flight-only customers due to travel on these flights will receive full refunds, and package holiday customers will have the option to amend their booking or cancel with a full refund. Refunds will be processed within 14 days of the booking being cancelled.

• Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th  July – our holiday programme to the North of Rhodes, where hotels and resorts are fully operational, will resume. Any customers who would prefer to amend to another available holiday can do so or they can cancel with a full refund.

• Up to and including Friday 11th August – Whilst a number of hotels in the South of the island are open, TUI is offering customers travelling on a package holiday to a hotel in the south of the island the option to rebook or amend their holiday, or cancel with a full refund. Our teams will be contacting these customers to discuss their preferred options, including anyone who’s booked on a non-TUI flight.

Ryanair

Ryanair told ManchesterWorld that their flights to and from both Rhodes and Corfu are operating as scheduled. For the latest developments, visit the Ryanair website.