MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

An estimated 3.000 passengers waiting in Punta Arenas to fly back to Santiago

Punta Arenas airport

Almost 3.000 people remained stranded Monday in Magallanes region, extreme south Chile, since Saturday’ devastating quake forced the temporary closure of Santiago’s main air terminal, according to reports in Punta Arenas.

Magallanes was unaffected by the quake but as communications in central Chile and the capital Santiago collapsed, the region was virtually “isolated” from the rest of the country for 24 hours.

According to Punta Arenas authorities, since Saturday, 25 flights should have taken off for Santiago (19 from Lan Chile and six Sky Airline). Only one Lan aircraft was reported at the local airport which left midnight Friday and was forced to return because of the earth quake.

On Monday long queues outside Lan offices in Punta Arenas were indicative of passengers frustration, but apparently there was not much to report besides the fact that Santiago’s air strips were operational but the terminal had suffered serious structural damage and the airlines booking system was down.

By the afternoon the situation had turned chaotic and local police had to be called in.
The situation calmed down when it was reported that on Monday afternoon a first flight, 290, had left Punta Arenas for Santiago with 111 passengers on board.

“The priority was flight 290 since they had to turn back on early Saturday morning” said Paola Contardo regional Lan manager.