AIRPORT ON FIRE
National airport operator AENA is gradually reopening the terminal
THOUSANDS of passengers have been unable to fly as scheduled from Alicante-Elche airport due to a huge fire that forced its evacuation shortly after 14.00 on Wednesday.
Airport firefighters, assisted by backup from Alicante and Elche were called in to attend a fire on the main terminal's roof affecting a 1,200 sqm area.
Due to the nature of the materials – rock wool, asphalt and other combustible components, firefighters remained at the scene throughout the night, with no electrical power at the airport at that point and were still dousing down a ‘controlled fire’ the next morning.
As a precaution the airport zone was evacuated and no vehicles were allowed to enter the drop off zone, but there were no reports of any injuries. All incoming flights were diverted to either Murcia or Valencia.
Yesterday (Thursday), AENA announced that the airport would resume flights at 14.00 but that some airlines would be using alternative airports due to logistics as they had no access to their crew room or computers due to the damage caused by the fire and predominantly affected Ryanair, Vueling and Norwegian airlines.
MORE than 160 flights were cancelled due to the fire at Alicante-Elche airport and hundreds more services were diverted to Murcia international and Valencia.
An emergency committee comprising the emergency services, local councils, and the provincial and regional governments was set up to manage the crisis, as more than 30,000 flyers were affected.
Although state airport authority Aena reported that the fire was ‘under control’ at 15.30 on Wednesday, the blaze continued to spread.
Around 30 firemen worked through the night to extinguish the flames.
State news agency EFE reported that combustible materials in the roof had made their job more difficult and generated a vast amount of smoke which could be seen several kilometres away from the site.
As Costa Blanca News went to press an area of around 1,200 square metres of the terminal roof had been affected by the fire.
State airport operator Aena reported that Murcia international and Valencia airports extended their opening hours on Wednesday night so flights scheduled for Alicante could land on their runways.
Even though services started to operate at Alicante Elche again yesterday afternoon, Aena continued to divert flights away from the airport.
The authorities in Murcia reported that 41 services due to operate at Alicante yesterday had been moved to Corvera.
An expat who was due to fly to Luton at 19.55 yesterday with her daughter and baby granddaughter received an email from Ryanair at 12.53 advising them that they would be flying from Murcia and would have to make their own way there and arrive three hours in advance.
Ryanair advised them to keep receipts for any expenses and send these to their customer service team.
Chaotic situation
Carol Bell complained of poor customer service.
She noted: “My husband was due to fly from Alicante to Cardiff at 10.40 with Vueling on Thursday (January 16) but his flight was cancelled.
“Fortunately I have been following the (Costa Blanca News) updates on Facebook, because Vueling have not been in contact either by email or text to advise of the cancellation.”
Elaine Cooper stated that her Ryanair flight from Gatwick was transferred to Murcia international on Wednesday afternoon.
She hit out at the ‘confusion and conflicting information’.
“The buses were ready at Murcia to take us to Alicante but the drivers didn’t have a clue what was going on as Ryanair had buses waiting too,” she said.
They opted to hire a car to get to their destination.
Evacuation
Outgoing passenger Philip Sutherland stated that he had just paid for a hamburger when the alarm sounded inside the airport and he had to evacuate the departure area along with hundreds of others.
Björn Hedenborn commented that his flight had taken off at 14.35 and said: “We were lucky.”
As Costa Blanca News went to press Aena was still advising passengers to check the status of their flights with their airlines in case of any last minute changes.