Lufthansa has extended its repatriation flight schedule
through 31 May, while Ryanair will continue its limited schedule to key
destinations until 14 May.
As of 18 May, Lufthansa will operate flights from Frankfurt
to Athens, Porto and Gothenburg, while its domestic flights from Munich will be
doubled. This is in addition to its ongoing services from Frankfurt to Newark,
Chicago, Sao Paulo, Bangkok and Tokyo. The airline is now offering 330 weekly
flights from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to key cities in Germany and
Europe.
Swiss, too, will continue to offer three weekly long-haul
flights to Newark from Zurich and Geneva in addition to a scaled-down timetable
for short and medium-haul destinations in Europe.
Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines have both extended
the suspension of flights to 31 May.
Meanwhile, Ryanair will continue offering flights from Dublin
to Stansted, Gatwick, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester,
Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Lisbon and Cologne, as well as from Cork to
Stansted and from Stansted to Eindhoven, Lisbon, Cork, Berlin and Budapest
until 14 May.
The Irish carrier said it was working with EU governments to
keep some minimum flight links open for emergency reasons.
Both airlines said they have enhanced their cleaning
procedures, with Ryanair disinfecting planes daily. Social distancing measures
on board will be facilitated by lower load factors, according to Ryanair. In
addition, from 4 May, all of Lufthansa Group’s airlines will require all passengers
to wear mouth-and-nose coverings such as face masks throughout their journey,
from check-in to leaving the airport at their final destination, as “it is not
always possible to maintain the required distance on a flight”. This mandatory
obligation will preliminarily be in effect until 31 August.