Although the level of operating flights is only expected to get back to normal in 2023 at the earliest, airlines in Europe are slowly reinstating their schedules from the middle of June 2020. The continent’s biggest carriers such as Ryanair, Wizzair, Lufthansa, (LHAB) (LHA) British Airways, Air France, and KLM have begun to operate a small number of regular scheduled flights, applying different safety policies onboard. In this article, take an overview of the situation of flight schedules, policy onboard, and the list of suspended flight destinations for this summer.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa (LHAB) (LHA) offers flights from its Frankfurt hub to nearly 100 destinations during the summer 2020. The list includes some holiday hot-spots in Europe such as Mallorca, Crete, Rhodes, Faro, Venice, Ibiza, and Malaga.
Outside the continent, the carrier is already selling tickets to North America, South America, Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The tickets to destinations are already on sale on Lufthansa (LHAB) (LHA) website.
It is compulsory to wear a face mask during boarding, the flight, and while leaving the aircraft.
Ryanair
From June 15, Ryanair restarted its flights to all European and Schengen zone countries, including Georgia, which is located in the crossroads between Western Asia and Eastern Europe. The Irish low cost carrier’s flights to Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco remain suspended. From July 1, the airline plans to be operating 1,000 daily flights.
The Irish Airline company states that all passengers will have to wear facemasks in airports and onboard. Also, passengers will have to ask the cabin crew for permission to use the toilet facilities to avoid queues.
Now, Ryanair faces a challenging situation with the UK government quarantine policy. The UK government requires travelers who arrive from abroad to self-isolate at one address for 14 days.
Wizzair
Hungarian carrier Wizz Air announced an additional expansion of operating flights, as the total number of planned new routes for the summer 2020 season nears 150. Wizzair is already operating flights in Europe, Asia and Africa. Find the full list of additional Wizzair destinations here.
Wizzair announced that all the passengers must wear facial protection while being onboard. Also, the airline removed all onboard magazines from the cabin.
British Airways
With British Airways (BA) you still can fly from London Heathrow Terminal 5 to the popular US destinations such as Boston, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles, and Chicago O’Hare.
Britain’s flag carrier is already expanding its destinations list within European and Schengen zone countries. However, some of its summer seasonal destinations such as Gran Canaria, Antalya, Milan Bergamo, Corfu, Toronto, and Lima, remain on hold.
Find more detailed information about travel warnings and tips of British Airways Travel News.
BA requires all travelers to wear a face mask at all times in the airport and onboard. Also, the catering onboard is restricted: special meals, including children’s meals, are unavailable.
British Airways also struggles with a strict quarantine policy of the UK like Ryanair and easyJet.
KLM
KLM started expanding its destination range from June 15, opening flights to all Schengen zone countries that accept passengers from the Netherlands.
From the same day, the Dutch flag-carrier also started providing regular international flights to Tokyo and Osaka in Japan.
In July, Royal Dutch Airlines will increase the number of destinations to 73 cities. The list of destinations generally covers Southern Europe, including Alicante, Bilbao, Bologna, Ibiza, Istanbul, Nice, Porto, Catania, and Split.
Wearing facial protection during boarding and onboard is mandatory for KLM passengers. More information about travel updates are at KLM.
Air France
Air France has already expanded its destination range with inter-regional routes to and from 27 metropolitan destinations, connecting them to almost 150 destinations globally via the Paris-Charles de Gaulle hub.
Now Air France operates domestic flights inside France, also flights to main European cities such as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, and more. Air France also provides international flights to Chicago, New York, and more operating flights.
From June 15, France reopened borders to all European countries, including EU Member States, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, and the Vatican.
By the end of June, Air France will offer approximately 20% of its usual flight capacity.
Prior boarding Air France carries out temperature checks, requires passengers to wear facial protection and has limited catering onboard to individually wrapped products only during the long-haul flights.