Several key European carriers have announced plans to resume service over the months to come.
Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines – both of which are subsidiaries of Germany’s Lufthansa – have been grounded since mid-March.
As of 15 May, however, both will resume short-haul services to a number of capital cities spread across Europe.
Austrian plans to offer flights to 27 cities, including London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle. The airline will operate one intercontinental service from Vienna to Tel Aviv.
Parent company Lufthansa also plans to scale up international service gradually from 15 June. The German carrier will operate long-haul services to Egypt, Costa Rica, China, India and Korea.
Budapest-based Wizz Air will meet the post-crisis environment head-on, announcing plans to open bases at Milan Malpensa and the Cypriot city of Larnaca in June.
“We see the potential and the demand for low-cost travel in Cyprus, which is one of the most popular and rapidly developing tourist destinations,” said Wizz Air chief executive Jozsef Varadi.
”We are dedicated to developing our presence in Cyprus, and offering more affordable travel opportunities to and from Larnaca, while keeping ourselves to the highest standards of our sanitising protocols.”
In June, the airline also hopes to push ahead with an expansion into the United Arab Emirates, which will see it operating flights to Abu Dhabi from both Budapest and Bucharest.
The addition of four new routes from London (Luton) to various Spanish resorts from July shows that Varadi’s airline remains confident in the durability of the leisure travel market.
