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GUIDE ON PAGES 24 - 28 8 - 14 August 2019
MALLORCA
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CREDIT: EWN
ISSUE NO. 1779
WARNING: A high alert has been issued for potential forest fires on the island.
Forest fire warning by Ben Mulvey THE State Agency of Meteorology (AEMET) has issued an extreme risk warning of fires in large parts of central Mallorca. The alert stretches across almost half of the island and was published on the website yesterday (Wednesday). Large inland areas of Mallorca, the coasts of the Llevant, parts of the south, as well as areas of the Serra de Tramuntana and the peninsula of Formentor have been issued with extreme or very high risk warnings as forest fires are highly likely in the soaring temperatures. AEMET has stated that the high risk of fires
was most likely from yesterday in the eastern part of the island and that a total of 14 towns and municipalities would be affected by storms and temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius. The yellow warning has been issued across the Balearic Islands by AEMET as well as other places such as Granada, Alicante, Valencia and Tarragona. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food states that forest fires in Spain have devoured 55,554.59 hectares of land since the beginning of 2019, which is almost five times more than the same period in 2018 when 11,671.54 hectares were affected.
WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
Airport downturn THE Association for the Coordination and Facilitation of Time Slots (AECFA), a body that reports to the Ministry of Public Works, has announced the statistics of the passenger seats and the planes that ha ve pa s s e d through Son Sant Joan airport in Palma for August so far show a dec line in numbe rs for the first time since 2015. Competition from countries such as Turkey that offer a cheaper alternative to tourists could be one reason for this downturn compared to previous years. It is reported that several tour operators are focusing more of their efforts on the resorts in Turkey due to the de ma nd by G e rma n a nd British tourists this year. AECFA’s forecast indicates that Palma airport has 27,050 aircraft movements estimated for this month which is 8.5 per cent less than in August 2018. These figures are reflective of the amount of people on the island which are predomina ntly ma de up of cruise ship passengers and
residents. Local businesses have been st at i ng vi a var i ous channel s of soci al m edi a over the past few weeks that the summer months of 2019 have been the quietest they have experienced.