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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Michelle Cullen

Spain travel: Major weather warnings in place as snow storm hits popular sun holiday destinations

Spain's meteorological agency has issued weather warnings for the Canary Islands as a storm approaches the popular holiday destinations.

Warnings are currently in place for Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura as the storm moves east through the Islands.

Tenerife is also expected to see wind and rain, but conditions should be less severe than the other islands.

READ MORE: Spain extends Covid travel rules over Easter holidays as Irish tourists warned of entry requirements

Southern Spain has recently experienced uncharacteristically bad weather with heavy downpours across the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca.

Spain weather (Twitter)

Tourists and residents have faced heavy rainfall, strong winds and a calima in some places.

A calima is a dust storm that forms when sand from the Sahara travels on the wind to Europe.

Residents in the Balearic islands even awoke to snow on April 1 as Storm Cyril hit the region.

The Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque country, Navarra and La Rioja were also hit by heavy snow.

The news comes as Spain prepares for the busiest Easter season in two years, as most countries have now lifted all Covid restrictions.

However, the increased cost of living has meant holidays will be rising in price as local industries struggle to deal with the rising inflation rate.

Items such as sunflower oil have risen in price, meaning restaurants in the region may now be charging higher prices.

The country has also been hit by a trucking strike, affecting some hotels' renovation plans.

Essential materials such as concrete have been impacted by delays which could mean some hotels cannot reopen for the season.

Irish tourists heading to Spain over the Easter holidays have also been urged to arrive in good time for their flights as Dublin Airport has been struggling to deal with staffing shortages.

Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus have advised passengers travelling out of Dublin Airport to arrive 3.5 hours before their scheduled departure time.

In a statement, Ryanair said: "Due to DAA staff shortages at Dublin Airport, passengers should arrive at least 3.5 hours before their scheduled departure time."

The daa has apologised to passengers for the delays.

It said: "Like other airports all over Europe, we are currently working extremely hard to ramp-up our operation at Dublin Airport after the collapse of international travel over the past two years including the hiring and training of staff after 1,000 workers left the airport under a voluntary severance scheme during the Covid-19 pandemic."

Since January, over 100 new security staff have been recruited. However, the daa said the recruitment, training and background security checks required for all staff working at international airports have delayed the rehiring process and could take up to a number of weeks.

It said: "This is having an impact on the length of time it is taking passengers to get through security, particularly at busy times.

"We apologise in advance, but queues for security are likely to be experienced at peak hours over the days and weeks ahead as we continue to bring trained staff on board."

The situation is likely to get worse as hundreds are expected to head abroad this year over the Easter holiday break.

READ MORE: Three 'hidden costs' Irish tourists should be aware of to avoid getting caught out in Spain

READ MORE: Irish tourists could be fined up to €60,000 if caught breaking these basic laws

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