Families face having to cancel their summer holidays to Spain and Greece with no compensation, despite the exceptional heatwave subjecting swathes of Europe to extreme temperatures and wildfires.
While the Foreign Office has issued warnings over scorching temperatures in both Spain and Greece, as wildfires rage on La Palma and near Athens, the UK government has so far stopped short of issuing “don’t travel” advice.
As a result, there is no automatic right for families to curtail, cancel or change planned trips, and holiday companies and airlines contacted by The Independent say normal terms and conditions will apply.
A firefighting helicopter flies through smoke as people look on in Mandra, west of Athens
(AP/Petros Giannakouris)
While provisional heat records were shattered in Rome and Catalonia on Tuesday, forecasters are bracing for Charon – the second heatwave in as many weeks, named after the Greek ferryman of the dead – to potentially surpass Europe’s hottest-ever temperature of 48.8C, set in Sicily two years ago.
The mercury hit 45C near Girona on Tuesday, as tourists and locals across the Mediterranean sweltered in 40C temperatures which had failed to fall below 25C in many places overnight, compounding the risks of fatalities – with 61,000 people estimated to have died last summer in Europe alone.
However, holiday companies argue that soaring temperatures in holiday hotspots are nothing new at this time of year, with some British holidaymakers happy to travel to Dubai and Egypt’s Red Sea coast in July, where temperatures above 40C are the norm.
Under the Package Travel Regulations, holidaymakers can cancel for a refund “if unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occur at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity which significantly affect the performance of the package or the carriage of passengers to the destination”.
But unless authorities issue instructions that make normal holiday activities impossible, it is difficult to see how the rule might apply during the heatwave.
A woman cools off at Fontana della Barcaccia at the Spanish Steps in Rome
(Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane)
However, holidaymakers with a travel insurance policy in which a pre-existing health condition has been declared may have grounds to claim for a cancellation if they receive specific medical advice against travel to a very hot…
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