HOPES TAKE OFF FOR HOLIDAYS
SUNSEEKERS desperate for a holiday may have the chance to get away next month after easyJet said it would resume flights to Nice.
The airline announced yesterday that its international services will restart from mid-June with the popular Gatwick to Nice route.
Some domestic flights between UK airports, including Gatwick, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Belfast, will also get the go-ahead if there is the demand.
Several flights will also operate within the rest of Europe.
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said “these are small and carefully planned steps”.
Further routes will be announced over the coming weeks “as demand increases and lockdown measures across Europe are relaxed”.
Grounded
The firm grounded its entire fleet in March as global travel came to a near-halt and the Foreign Office warned against all but essential journeys. Mr Lundgren said the airline will be implementing “enhanced cleaning and disinfection” and other safety measures.
Meanwhile Emirates resumed long-haul flights to nine destinations yesterday, including from Dubai to Heathrow, as well as onwards to Australia.
The UAE airline is giving all passengers free hygiene kits, including masks, gloves, antibacterial wipes and hand sanitiser. Planes will be boarded by row and the toilets will be cleaned every 45 minutes.
Ryanair announced it aims to resume 40 per cent of flights by July 1, and ramp this up to 70 per cent by September.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary welcomed the use of face masks onboard but slammed the UK Government’s plan to quarantine travellers for 14 days, calling it “nonsense” and “idiotic”.
He added: “The UK will still go to Spain, Portugal, on family holidays, they will still go to the beaches. There are very low incidents of Covid in those areas. We do think families will still go on the summer holidays once the school holidays come around, but at best we think we are talking about 50 per cent of our normal travelling.”
The airlines’ announcements came as a poll revealed 27 per cent of British adults feel ready to travel between July and September.
One in five thinks they will feel comfortable to travel between October and December.
But 21 per cent don’t want to go on holiday until at least May next year, the survey of 1,063 people by Toluna and Harris Interactive found. Spanish beaches started implementing social distancing measures yesterday following an announcement they will be able to open by the end of the month.
These include the spreading out of umbrellas, bringing in booking slots and using traffic-light systems.
Some hotspots in France – including Couchant Beach in La Grande Motte – are already adopting distancing systems such as roping off areas for each person or family to sunbathe in, and marking out oneway walkways on the sand.
Welcome
The Algarve in southern Portugal is also gearing up to welcome back holidaymakers, with 75 per cent of hotels expected to reopen by June.
Restaurants will also reopen, but at 50 per cent of their capacity.
Joao Fernandes, president of Algarve Tourism, said: “The country was quick to adopt preventive measures, and as a result we have had much fewer cases than other European countries.
“Plus, the Algarve is one of the least affected regions in Portugal, so we are now in a position to carefully plan a gradual reopening.”
Italy said on Wednesday that all airports could reopen on June 3 for national and international flights.
But hopes for holidays in Greece were dealt a blow after its tourism minister Haris Theoharis said direct flights from Britain were unlikely due to our Covid-19 record.