The European Commission today proposed a 30-day ban on incoming travel to the European Union bloc for non-Eu nationals.
Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen stated: “I propose to the heads of state and government to introduce temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU. These travel restrictions should be in place for an initial period of 30 days, but can be prolonged as necessary.”
Von der Leyen envisages exemptions to include long-term EU residents, family members of EU nationals, diplomats and doctors.
An EU official said the ban would cover all EU member states except Ireland, as well as the four non-EU countries in the Schengen open-border zone. However, the Commission indicated that Ireland would be encouraged to follow the EU’s lead.
The Commission’s rationale is that the proposal would make intra-Schengen restrictions unnecessary.
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Norwegian is to temporarily lay off more than 7,300 employees – 90% of its workforce – as the embattled airline deals with the Covid-19 fallout.
The company is cancelling most of its flights due to travel restrictions enforced by authorities worldwide to halt the spread of coronavirus. Norwegian’s staff cull includes pilots, cabin crew, maintenance and administrative staff, with layoff procedures varying from country to country.
Jacob Schram, CEO of Norwegian, said that most of his airline’s planes will be temporarily grounded amid “unprecedented and critical” challenges facing the airline sector as a result of Covid-19’s spread.
As of March 21, Norwegian will primarily fly a reduced scheduled domestically in Norway and between the Nordic capitals. Some European flights will be operated. All intercontinental are cancelled except flights between Scandinavia and Thailand (last flights at end of March).
Norwegian is the world's fifth largest low-cost airline, operating 500 routes to 150 destinations in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, Thailand, Caribbean, the US and South America.
For April and May, Ryanair expects to reduce its seat capacity by up to 80%, and the airline said a full grounding of the fleet cannot be ruled out.
The airline said coronavirus restrictions will lead to the the grounding of the majority of its aircraft fleet across Europe over the next 7 to 10 days. In those countries where the fleet is not grounded, social distancing restrictions may make flying to all intents and purposes, impractical, if not impossible.
Air France-KLM said it plans to ground its entire Airbus 380 fleet and KLM its entire Boeing 747 fleet. The group estimates that the drop in revenues from the passenger business resulting from the reduction in capacity will only be offset by around 50% by the drop in variable costs before cost savings measures.
SAS said demand for international air travel is essentially non-existent and has laid off 10,000 employees, or 90% of the total workforce.
In the coming weeks, SAS will continue to operate the following routes and destinations with limited service:
• Domestic: All routes with few exceptions
• Intra-Scandinavia: Routes between the Scandinavian capitals as well as Copenhagen to Bergen, Gothenburg and Stavanger
• Europe: Routes to Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London Heathrow, Manchester, Paris, Reykjavik, Zurich, Alicante, Las Palmas, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Nice and Athens
• USA: Copenhagen-New York, Copenhagen-Chicago and Stockholm-New York
• Asia: Copenhagen-Tokyo
For the time being and to a limited extent, SAS will also serve other destinations in Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. The airline said it will continue to adjust the traffic programme based on the demand situation and valid travel restrictions.
