Austrian Airlines temporarily suspends flights from the UK

The flag carrier of Austria, Austrian Airlines has announced that will be suspending flights from the UK for a period of 20 days, in order to comply with the Austrian federal government’s landing ban on flights from the UK. The Austrian federal government decided to impose a landing ban on aircraft from the United Kingdom “due to the spread of the B.1.617.2 of coronavirus, which was first discovered in India.”

According to the airline, this temporary flight suspension will commence from June 1st and will last until at least the 20th of June. Austrian Airlines added that it will still operate flights to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) from Austria. However, following the government’s announcement, it has had to cancel “all flights from London to Vienna for this period.”

In a tweet seen by AeroNewsX, the Chief Executive of Austrian Airlines, Alexis Alexis von Hoensbroech described the landing ban as “purely symbolic politics” and is “easy for passengers to circumvent.”

Germany has also decided to impose a similar travel ban, however, it is still allowing non-German residents to enter the country, provided that they have an essential reason to travel, present a negative COVID-19 test and will also be required to undergo a two-week quarantine on arrival.

While Germany and Austria have imposed bans on flights from the UK, Spain opened up to UK tourists this week ahead of the summer season. Spain has announced that will allow UK tourists to travel without a negative PCR test from Monday, May 24th. The country still remains on the UK’s amber list meaning returning passengers have to self isolate for 10 days and take two COVID-19 tests, however, there is a sense of optimism that Spain could be added to the UK’s green list in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, Portugal has already opened its borders to tourists from the UK and from a number of EU countries with low infection rates. Unlike Spain, Portugal still requires passengers to have a negative COVID-19 test on arrival. However, its addition to the UK’s green list, means passengers are not required to quarantine when they arrived back in the UK.

With the summer season fast approaching, there is still some optimism on the horizon with the approval of the EU Digital COVID Certificate, previously known as the Digital Green Certificate by the European Parliament and European Commission.

According to the European Commission, the EU Digital COVID Certificate “will cover vaccination, test and recovery” and “fully respects citizens’ fundamental rights.” The regulation is set to come into force by July 1st and has a six week grace period for EU Member States which may require additional time “for the issuance of certificates.”

Source: https://aeronewsx.com/austrian-airlines-temporarily-suspends-flights-from-the-uk/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=austrian-airlines-temporarily-suspends-flights-from-the-uk