Faro airport cancelled yesterday 75 flights due to the cloud of volcanic ash originating from Iceland, which means that roughly 20 thousand passengers are currently detained in the Algarve region, according to figures supplied by the airport manager, ANA Aeroportos de Portugal.

“Most of the destinations and origins of these flights continue to be Central Europe, Northern Europe and the United Kingdom,” said ANA, which is coordinating all the operations.

Meanwhile the Faro Civil Government has informed these passengers that all of their basic needs, such as the provision of food and healthcare, will be met for as long as they have to wait to return to their countries of origin.

The Civil Government yesterday guaranteed that all of the more delicate situations that are reported to it by the head of the airport’s infrastructure will be dealt with immediately. Yet so far the authorities have not received any request for support from any of the foreign passengers.

According to the organisation responsible for the control of air safety in Europe – Eurocontrol – only 8 to 9 thousand of the flights planned to take place were guaranteed yesterday, a situation that represents a fall of 70 per cent in the number of flights that would “normally” be expected to be operating in the European air space on a Monday.

However, at least eight countries – including Portugal, Spain, parts of Italy and France, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey – have already reopened their air space. Eurocontrol believes that 30 per cent of flights took place yesterday throughout Europe, figures that show that things are beginning to return to normal after the stoppage caused by the cloud of volcanic ash.

Even so, some countries have not yet lifted restrictions and have warned that this reopening of airports may only be a temporary measure as it is still not known how the Icelandic volcano will behave over the next few days.