Latest news from easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair and TUI on when flights will restart

Here in the UK, the biggest companies such as TUI and Jet2 are ramping up their plans with a phased return to the skies, with enhanced safety measures in place.

However, the latest advice from the Foreign Office is that all travel should be avoided, unless it is essential.

The UK government has also imposed a mandatory two-week quarantine policy for those arriving into the country.

During an appearance on BBC Breakfast on Thursday, foreign secretary Dominic Raab was asked why travellers from the UK are not being questioned on their reason for choosing to leave the country.

Mr Raab said on the programme: "That is a fundamentally misunderstanding of Foreign Office travel advice.

"We – based on the risk to UK travellers abroad because of terrorism or because of Covid-19 or the vulnerability of the the systems in the country – give advice."

However he added that the final decision was then for the traveller themselves to make.

We've put together a round-up as to what each airline have said about their return.

Jet2

Holiday airline Jet2 have pushed back the date of when they will restart flights to Europe and beyond.

The company operates flights from Birmingham, Belfast, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, London Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle.

It's not the first time the airline has delayed the date - they were due to resume services on June 17, but pushed this back to July 1. 

Now those eager to head abroad will have to wait a bit longer.

In a statement on June 8, a spokesman from Jet2 said: "Due to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we’ve decided to recommence our flights programme on July 15, 2020.

"If you're travelling before this date, unfortunately, your booking will be affected as our flights won't be operating.

"We're proactively contacting all affected customers in departure date order, which we think is the fairest way – please be patient with us as we do this.

"If you're due to travel after July 15, 2020, your booking is currently unaffected and there's no need to contact us, as your flight will operate as normal.

"The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in everyone having to deal with difficulties and restrictions, and our business and our colleagues face these too.

"Please do bear with us and thank you in advance for your loyalty, understanding and patience."

Affected customers have been advised to visit the Jet2 website for more information: jet2.com/flights/incident.

Ryanair

Budget airline Ryanair has revealed a plan to restore 40 per cent of its flight schedule from the start of July.

The company said the measure is subject to government restrictions on flights within the EU being lifted and “effective public health measures” being put in place at airports.

The plan would involve nearly 1,000 flights per day being operated and 90 per cent of Ryanair’s pre-Covid-19 route network being restored.

The airline said there will be lower frequencies than normal on its most popular routes as it aims to maximise the number of airports it serves.

Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson said: “It is important for our customers and our people that we return to some normal schedules from July 1 onwards.

“Governments around Europe have implemented a four-month lockdown to limit the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

“After four months, it is time to get Europe flying again so we can reunite friends and families, allow people to return to work and restart Europe’s tourism industry, which provides so many millions of jobs.”

TUI

TUI were due to resume travel abroad from July 1, but have since pushed back the date by nine days to July 10.

The company updated their list of cancelled holidays earlier this month, adding that trips on or before July 10 have now too been cancelled.

Those who have a holiday that falls into one of the categories below have been cancelled:

• TUI holidays travelling on or before July 10, 2020

• TUI River Cruises sailings travelling up until and including November 25, 2020

• TUI Lakes and Mountain holidays travelling up until and including September 30, 2020

• Marella Cruises sailings on or before July 30, 2020 and all sailings detailed below;
- All sailings on Marella Celebration
- Sailings on Marella Discovery 2 from Naples, Asia and the Middle East up to April 30, 2021
- Sailings on Marella Dream from Palma up to May 4, 2021
- Marella Discovery sailings from Jamaica in December 2020 and January 2021
- Marella Explorer 2 sailings from Naples between May 5, 2021 to October 20, 2021

EasyJet

Easyjet relaunched its flights from 22 airports across Europe for the first time on Monday, June 15, since they were halted at the end of March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline will be offering a reduced roster of destinations available for passengers - the plan is to be able to fly 50 per cent of its normal 1,022 routes in July, and 75 per cent in August.

While there will be fewer flights on offer, travellers will have their pick of flights to domestic, city and beach destinations.

These are all the destinations available from the Easyjet summer 2020 flying programme:

• Albania
• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Egypt
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Israel
• Italy
• Kosovo
• Montenegro
• Morocco
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Serbia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• Cities around the UK

The airline confirmed that flights will resume from airports across the UK, these include: Gatwick, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, and Belfast.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to restart passenger flights in July.

The airline will also have enhanced safety measures for passengers and crew, with a deep clean regime carried out onboard every plane before every flight.

They will initially operate flights from London Heathrow to the following destinations from these dates:

Monday, July 20

• Orlando
• Hong Kong

Tuesday, July 21

• Shanghai
• New York
• Los Angeles

Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer of Virgin Atlantic said: “Our planned first flights will be to Orlando and Hong Kong on July 20, however, we are monitoring external conditions extremely closely, in particular the travel restrictions many countries have in place including the 14 day quarantine policy for travellers entering the UK.

“We know that as the Covid-19 crisis subsides, air travel will be a vital enabler of the UK’s economic recovery.

“Therefore, we are calling for a multi-layered approach of carefully targeted public health and screening measures, which will allow for a successful and safe restart of international air travel for passengers and businesses.

“We are planning to announce more destination restart dates in the next two weeks for the month of August.”

Norwegian

Airline Norwegian has confirmed it will restart flights from UK airports from July 1 due to increased demand.

Since April, Norwegian has only operated domestic flights within Norway due to the collapse in passenger numbers caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The carrier will initially operate flights on four UK routes, connecting Gatwick and Edinburgh with Oslo and Copenhagen.

The airline’s chief executive, Jacob Schram, said: “Feedback from our customers has shown that they are keen to get back in the air and resume their travels with Norwegian beyond the current domestic services that we have been operating.

“Norwegian is returning to European skies with the reintroduction of more aircraft to serve our key destinations, which will ensure that we remain in line with competing carriers.”

Mr Schram added that Norwegian will offer “great value” as “competition in the industry begins to recover over the summer period”.