There is still no estimate of when the 220 Russian tourists stranded in Madeira will be repatriated. Contrary to the expectations of the Regional Government, this Monday did not bring anything new in concrete about the type of operation necessary to return to Moscow the tourists who saw the flight canceled this Sunday due to airspace restrictions in most European countries to flights to and from Russia.
This afternoon Eduardo Jesus’, Regional Secretary for Tourism and Culture, recalled that “the Regional Government was ready to help these people in the expectation that they could return to their homes as soon as possible”. He recalled that “yesterday there was this possibility, this expectation”, which, because it did not materialize, led the regional executive to create “conditions for people to be well waiting for a new solution, a solution that depends far beyond the intervention of the Regional Government. , because a tour operator that brought them to the Region is involved here and that is therefore responsible for their return to their country of origin” but also the Russian Embassy in Lisbon “which represents the interests of these same citizens, so there is here a set of of entities much earlier than the Regional Government of Madeira,
He assures that the Regional Government’s intervention is to “minimize the impact of them (tourists) being involved in a situation like this. Therefore, what we advocate and the work we did during the day is that a solution emerges, one of which is the possibility of having a flight from Madeira to a territory where the airspace is not yet closed to flights from Russia and that the from there with another flight can take them to Russia”. But it also clarifies that “this solution is not in the hands of the Regional Government, nor is it in the hands of the Regional Government to define a deadline for it to happen”.
In view of the uncertainty that persists, he assures that the Regional Government remains involved in wanting to find this way out, “but we are not responsible for it, of course. So you cannot estimate when the problem is solved,” he admitted.