According to latest reports by the Associated Press, flights to and from Europe are starting to resume. Charter airlines begin flights to selected destinations for the summer holiday season while other airlines will restart their engines not until early July.
The flagship German carrier Lufthansa was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic this travel season the management of the airline attested last month. It looses close to €1 million (over 1.2 million dollars) an hour by operating only close to 1% of its normal passenger load. The German government quickly stepped in to the rescue and agreed to a €9 billion (over 10 billion dollars) bail out deal becoming the largest stakeholder in the company. Lufthansa is up to a fresh start.
Furthermore, Lufthansa is the first major European carrier to announce the debut of its post COVID-19 flight plans in June with 3,600 flights a week. Recently, it offered to its passengers option to postpone your their to the second half of 2021 if they have booked their ticket by June 30th, 2020. This applies to flights up to and including April 30th,, 2021. Regardless of their ticket’s fare structure, passenger could re-book their flights once free of charge for the same route and travel class, provided the new travel date is prior to December 31st, 2021.
In July, another carrier, Finnair aims to resume flights to several cities in Europe, as well as six domestic routes. Destinations in Spain, Italy and Poland will be added in August.
EasyJet resumes a small number of routes from June 15. The airline said it would resume half of its 1,022 routes in July and 75% in August.
After 12 weeks on the ground, Brussels Airlines planes will fly again from June 15. The carrier will gradually add destinations in the coming weeks, increasing to 30% of its usual summer program in Europe.
Ryanair hopes to restore 40% of its flights from July as European governments lift off the blockades.
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