Category: Europe

British Airways has said it will retire all of its Boeing 747s as it suffers from the sharp travel downturn. The airline is the world’s largest operator of the jumbo jets, with 31 of them in the fleet. “It is with great sadness that we can confirm we are proposing to retire our entire 747 fleet with immediate effect,” a British Airways (BA) spokesman told the BBC. “It is unlikely our magnificent ‘queen of the skies’ will ever operate commercial services for British Airways again due to the downturn in travel caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic,” the spokesman added. BA, ... Read more

Helge Braun, who has coordinated Germany’s fight against the pandemic from the start, said the government is considering limiting travel in and out of areas that see a sudden, unexplained surge in Covid-19 cases. “Our measures are appropriate to prevent a second big wave,” Braun told The Associated Press (AP) during an interview at the Chancellery in Berlin. “But this requires us to stay the course, not get careless in our measures, and maintain our respect for the virus.” Germans have watched in horror as cases in the United States, Brazil and elsewhere surged long after Germany flattened its own curve ... Read more

Hungary will introduce international travel restrictions and tighten its border controls from today, as an effort to prevent a new wave of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Gergely Gulyás has announced. Gulyás has stressed that Hungary must prevent the virus from being imported from abroad, clarifying that there will not be any additional restrictive rules within the country, reports SchengenVisaInfo.com. “Hungary is today among the safest countries in Europe. But given new outbreaks around the world, the government is putting the health and safety of Hungarians foremost and is doing everything possible to prevent the ... Read more

German flag carrier Lufthansa has announced that it will cut 20% of its leadership positions and 1,000 administrative jobs, in a restructuring plan to cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.  After downsizing the executive board of the Lufthansa parent company, the corporation is now also planning similar actions at its subsidiaries, with Lufthansa Cargo AG, LSG Group, and Lufthansa Aviation Training set to lose one board position each.  The airline said that it would also halve its investment in new aircraft, although it could still add up to 80 new planes by 2023. According to a statement, ... Read more

Air France has announced that it would be increasing its flight schedule for summer 2020 and gradually building up its destination-offering and flight-frequencies over the next few months, through to October. Thus, by September, it hopes to achieve 50% of its flight schedule, pushing it to 60% in October. Additionally, the airline says that its domestic network will be restored to nearly full capacity flying out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. However, medium and long-haul routes and frequencies will slowly build over the coming weeks and months. Earlier, Air France-KLM had announced plans to cut more than 7,500 jobs at its French ... Read more

The Boris Johnson government is under pressure to strip British Airways of valuable landing slots at UK airports amid concern about the airline’s plan to cut 12,000 jobs, according to a report in the Daily Mail. More than 100 British members of parliament from various political parties are asking the prime minister to reconsider British Airways’ right to slots at airports such as Heathrow, the newspaper said. The mounting political pressure comes after British Airways revealed it would cut about 28% of its 42,000 workers as it struggles to survive amid the coronavirus pandemic. The airline holds more than half ... Read more

The Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli has said that Slovenian tourists do not need to worry about their arrival in Croatia, particularly in the coastal Adriatic area where the epidemiological situation was good. Cappelli, who was in Croatia’s delegation led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic for the talks with their Slovenian hosts on Friday, said that the meeting had revolved around tourism-related issues against a backdrop of the epidemiological situation. “During the meeting in Slovenia we emphasised the importance of Slovenian visitors for the Croatian tourism industry. Currently, there are 92,000 Slovenians vacationing here, and 70% of them are in three Adriatic counties: Istria, ... Read more

Britain’s biggest holiday company Tui is seeking to reassure prospective customers by offering cover for passengers against coronavirus-related problems. The company has announced a “Covid-19 cover scheme” that will be provided with every holiday from the UK for the rest of 2020. If travellers are asked to self-isolate, it will cover the cost of an extended stay and a new return flight home. The scheme will also cover testing costs and, if medically required, repatriation. Andrew Flintham, managing director for Tui UK & Ireland, said: “It means that they can book with confidence, knowing that extra costs associated with Covid-19 that wouldn’t ... Read more

The Norwegian government has revised its coronavirus travel restrictions allowing people from many European (EU/EEA/Schengen) countries including the UK to visit Norway with no quarantine requirements from July 15. However, residents of Portugal, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Luxembourg remain excluded due to the high rate of infection in those countries. With the exception of residents of Kronoberg, Skåne and Blekinge, Sweden also remains excluded. Norway’s Minister of Trade and Industry Iselin Nybø said the move was “good news” for Norway’s tourism industry. “Tourism companies across the country can now receive guests from a number of countries in Europe again. The ... Read more

The Croatian authorities have decided to open their borders for all travellers who intend to enter the country for business, tourism, or other personal reasons, including Americans. Despite the EU-wide entry ban on United States citizens, Croatia (a non-Schengen EU Member State), has taken the matter on its own hands and opened the borders to all EU/EEA nationals and individuals holding permanent residence in the EU/EEA countries, and more. According to a notice of the US Embassy in Zagreb, published in its official website, all third-country nationals have been eligible to enter Croatia since July 1.“All other foreign nationals, including ... Read more

The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced steep cuts to value added tax (VAT) worth over £4 billion in an attempt to revive the struggling British tourism and hospitality sector. In his statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, the Chancellor said VAT will be slashed from 20% to 5% for a period of six months until January, giving every chance for the sector to bounce back. Sunak said he wanted to see pubs, restaurants, cafes and B&Bs “bustling again”, adding that the measures were “a plan to turn our national recovery into millions of stories of personal renewal.” ... Read more

Spain’s tourism industry has been in a difficult situation ever since the coronavirus crisis began, which led to a near global lockdown and travel restrictions. While travel is now permitted within the European Union and Schengen Area, it remains heavily restricted for citizens of countries outside the EU. The so-called “Golden Mile” between Puerto Banús and Marbella, on Spain’s Costa del Sol, has been left without its typical visitors this summer: tourists from the Middle East and Russia. The image of the Spanish port filled with yachts and glamorous foreigners is distinctly missing, El Pais has reported. Tourists from these countries ... Read more

Greece’s Tourism Ministry and the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) have launched a new campaign that focuses on the restart of Greek tourism, promoting the country as a safe destination. Titled“Destination Greece Health First”, the campaign will promote the country to markets abroad. It includes a video that features distinctive images of Greece and informs potential travellers that the country has undertaken all the necessary health protocols to ensure safe carefree holidays to its visitors. The video also introduces potential visitors to the “Greece Health First” microsite, where they can find information on everything they need to know about the health ... Read more

Norway will permit the residents of Schengen Zone and European Economic Area (EEA) countries to travel to the archipelago of Svalbard from July 15, according to the Norwegian’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security. Commercial flights, as well as expedition cruises (ships with capacity for 500 or fewer passengers), will be included in the reopening of Svalbard for travellers, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.  “It is important that tourism in Svalbard can also take part in the reopening we are now implementing in communities, but because of Svalbard’s emergency and emergency preparedness this opening must happen gradually and more controlled than on the ... Read more

Several German officials on Monday said they hope Berlin would soon ease its coronavirus-related travel restrictions so that tourism activities with Turkey could resume. Turkey is one of the most popular travel destinations for German holidaymakers; nearly 5 million German tourists travelled to Turkey last year.  “Every country should be treated fairly and I am pretty confident that tourism activity between Turkey and Germany will resume soon,” the German government’s tourism commissioner, Thomas Bareiss, told German broadcaster NTV. “I hope that I will have the opportunity to travel to Turkey this summer,” Nils Schmid, foreign affairs spokesman for the Social ... Read more