There’s total travel chaos in Spain as tourists are left stranded on the runway and a major airport is flooded.
After barely having time to recover from the devastating flash floods that killed over 200 people in Valencia and the wider region a fortnight ago, Spain is now in the midst of yet more torrential rains in the popular tourist destination of Malaga.
For those headed to the seaside province with nearly 100 miles of coastline, plans have been thrown into chaos as Malaga Airport’s exterior grounds have been filled with knee-high floodwater.
For those that are lucky enough to land at the airport, there are then facing futher delays getting off their flight, according to The Olive Press. To make matters worse, once passengers make it to arrivals, they then find that no trains are running.
Instead, queues for taxis are currently snaking around the airport, with wait times in Malaga of a similar length.
Elsewhere in Malaga, horrifying pictures show the huge impact the new storm is having on the province, with restaurants and hospitals appearing flooded. There are shocking scenes of police cars floating backwards down the streets as Guadalhorce River reached near bursting flood levels.
In the run up to the storm, several areas of Spain were placed on high alert by the state meteorological agency, Aemet. The areas hit by the alert included parts of Valencia, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands, all destinations loved by British tourists. The alert is in place from Wednesday, November 13, until Thursday, November 14.
Thousands have been evacuated from their homes, with locals and holidaymakers warned there is an “extreme risk”. All schools in the province remain closed since yesterday, a measure which has likely impacted more than 300,000 pupils.
A video clip shot from a plane cockpit as it approached runway 12 at Malaga airport shows the Guadalhorce River has burst its banks.
One resident wrote on social media: “If you are in Malaga and you are going to call a taxi, be aware that the call time is around half an hour and there is no guarantee of a response.
“There are long queues at the airport and as there is no transport, many people have been left stranded.”
According to airport operator Aena, by 2pm 135 commercial flights scheduled for today out of the 296 had flown scheduled. Five flights were diverted and one was cancelled.
The national rail operator Renfe suspended all short distance trains in Malaga from 1.30pm, including high speed AVE trains to and from Madrid. Meanwhile, airline Helity has cancelled all helicopter flights linking Ceuta with both Malaga airport and Algeciras.
