Rome -- Another blow has been struck to the Eternal City's Leonardo da Vinci airport as a forest fire near the facility's buildings obstructed the runways, causing a rash of cancellations.  Delays continued at the beleaguered facility Friday with tense scenes at the Vueling airline desks as irate passengers vented frustration.

 Despite the strong winds, the blaze was contained swiftly, with two Forestry department helicopters, and the fire department extinguishing the fire which destroyed many hectares of green land and even several cars in a car park. The smoke of the blaze affected visibility on some of the runways, making it unsafe to travel. The reason for the fire is most likely to be arson, and Civitavecchia’s prosecution office has launched an enquiry into the incident to confirm this.

 Queues and confusion built up in the evening of Wednesday through to the morning of Thursday, with one flight from Spanish budget carrier Vueling expected to take off at 9:40 p.m. actually leaving the day after, at 10 a.m. Other flights to Milan, Marseille, Amsterdam and Bologna were delayed by a maximum of three hours. Delays also became cancellations, when no flights to the southern Italy island of Sicily were able to take off from 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday until 8:00 a.m. the next day. Travellers complained that they had not been informed of their flights’ delays or cancellations, and are incredulous to the fact that a fire that was apparently under control after approximately two hours has caused such disruption.  

 Main Italian carrier Alitalia has said that the forest fire has meant that they have had to cancel 37 flights in total since Wednesday. It has also threatened to no longer serve the airport:

 “Leonardo da Vinci airport still does not have a suitable infrastructure to serve as a hub for a company with our ambitions,” said Alitalia Chief Executive Officer Silvano Cassano, in reference to the fire in Terminal 3 on May 7. The carrier also asked for compensation of 80 million euros for the two incidents, which it reportedly is “determined to receive.”

 Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has requested clarification on the events of Wednesday from Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, calling the situation “unacceptable,” and has said that it is “unimaginable that the airport is at the mercy of such incidents.” 

On Friday morning, two days after the blaze, travellers still faced delays with tensions remaining high at the Vueling information desk.  About a hundred passengers flying with the Spanish low cost carrier, who departed from Turin, have had to endure a nine-hour delay at Leonardo da Vinci airport to fly to their final destination of Sicily. The passengers’ frustration became anger in Terminal 3 when Italian police force the carabinieri had to intervene between Vueling workers and passengers, when passengers chanted “shame” and demanded that the stewards and hostesses call those in charge. Just the day before, a blackout put the airport without electricity for a brief period of time. The president of the association of Rome’s airport (Adr), Fabrizio Palenzona, has rejected criticism of the ill-fated airport and has said “enough with the groundless attacks” and that the association “will not stop” in its improvement of the airport’s services.