European airlines start to resume services as countries try to revive tourism

Europe-based airlines are starting to resume services step by step as countries try to revive tourism as a way to bring their economies battered hard by the COVID-19 pandemic back to life.

Italy

Alitalia, Italy’s flagship airline, formally launched long-haul flight from Rome to New York on Tuesday, a day before the country opens its borders to other Schengen countries. The eight-hour flight will run twice a week.

Since early March, the lockdown has all but shut down the airline aside from some cargo flights and a few flights used to repatriate Italians from coronavirus hotspots.

The airline will also restart flights between Rome and the Sardinian cities of Alghero and Olbia on Wednesday, as well as flights between Rome and Spanish cities of Barcelona on Wednesday and Madrid on Thursday.

All the flights will take place with social distancing rules in effect, meaning that flights will be capped at 33 to 50 percent capacity depending on the type of aircraft.

Germany

Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa announced on Tuesday that it is going to make wearing mouth-nose cover on board mandatory starting from June 8. This change would initially apply to Lufthansa, Eurowings and Lufthansa Cityline and will preliminarily apply until Aug. 31, 2020.

Lithuania

Lithuania lifted on Monday the 14-day self-isolation rule for travellers from 24 European countries.

Travellers coming from Malta, Ireland and Spain are still subject to mandatory self-isolation for 14 days while travel is still prohibited from Belgium, Sweden, Portugal and Britain, where the number of COVID-19 patients exceeds 25 cases per 100,000 population.

Up to now, Lithuania has resumed regular flights to Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and plans to resume flights to Denmark, Israel and Finland in the upcoming week.

• This is what travelling will look like after the pandemic

Malta

From July 1, Malta will reopen its airport for some European countries and Israel. The lifting of restrictions applied only to direct flights, and passengers have to guarantee that they have stayed in the same country for four weeks prior to the flight.

Cyprus

In Cyprus, airports are scheduled to reopen on June 9 when flights are expected to resume with 19 countries considered by Cypriot authorities to be relatively safe as far as COVID-19 is concerned.

Most hotels are offering big discounts, but have announced on their websites that accommodation will not be available before June 20, when travellers from Greece, Malta, Bulgaria, Norway, Austria, Finland, Slovenia, Hungary, Israel, Denmark, Germany, Slovakia and Lithuania will travel freely without having a proof for a negative COVID-19 test, those from six other countries will still need the proof.