Airports in Spain’s Canary Islands reopen after sandstorm

Air travel returned to normal on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday a day after a huge sandstorm disrupted nearly 300 flights in the popular European holiday destination, officials said.

Spain’s airport operator AENA on Saturday suspended all flights in and out of Gran Canaria and all flights leaving Tenerife, after strong winds carrying clouds of red sand from the Sahara severely reduced visibility on the islands which lie off the coast of Morocco.

Around 280 flights were cancelled or diverted, an AENA spokeswoman said.

But visibility had improved on Sunday and the three airports on the two islands were operating normally although there could still be some delays due to the weather conditions, she added.

Norwegian shipping firm Fred. Olsen & Co suspended Sunday its ferry service between the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, as well as between San Sabastian and Valle Gran Rey on the island of Gomera, “until further notice” because of the bad weather, the company said in a tweet.

Spain’s national weather service said wind gusts of up to 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour were recorded on some parts of the archipelago overnight.

The strong winds also stalled efforts to put out a wildfire that broke out Saturday near the village of Tasarte in the southwest part of Gran Canaria.

Water-dropping aircraft were on Sunday prevented from taking part in the fire, which has scorched around 300 hectares of land and forced the evacuation of around 500 people, the regional government of the Canaries said in a statement.

ds/klm