(TAN): British Airways will resume flying to more destinations across its network throughout July, albeit offering fewer frequencies due to reduced demand because of the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
The airline will return to more short-haul destinations across the UK and Europe by the end of July, including Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Morocco, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Domestic flights will resume between London and Belfast, Inverness, Jersey, Manchester, Newcastle and Newquay and the airline will move to double daily services to Edinburgh and Glasgow, the airline said in a statement.
British Airways will also resume a small number of its normal long-haul routes by the end of July. Services will resume across the Americas including flights to Bermuda, Dallas, Miami, Seattle and Toronto. These join flights to San Francisco, which restarted in June along with destinations served throughout, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York (JFK) and Washington, with a very reduced schedule. The Caribbean will also see British Airways return from July to Barbados and Kingston.
Joining Hong Kong and Singapore, which the airline resumed limited flying to in June, will be services to Haneda in Japan.
British Airways has introduced a range of measures to keep its customers safe. These include:
1. Checking-in online, downloading their boarding pass and where possible self-scanning their boarding passes at the departure gate.
2. Observing social distancing and using hand sanitisers that are placed throughout airports.
3. Wearing a facemask at all times and bringing enough to replace them every four hours for longer flights.
4. Asking customers not to travel if they think they have any symptoms of COVID-19.
5. Cabin crew wearing PPE and a new food service, which reduces the number of interactions required with customers.
6. Asking customers to ensure they have everything they need from their hand luggage before departure, and where possible, storing their carry-on bag under the seat in front of them.
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The airline is cleaning all key surfaces including seats, screens, seat buckles and tray tables after every flight and each aircraft is completely cleaned from nose to tail every day. The air on all British Airways flights is fully recycled once every two to three minutes through HEPA filters, which remove microscopic bacteria and virus clusters with over 99.9% efficiency.
“Following months of lockdown and stress, we know people will want to travel to be reunited with friends and family and to take a well-deserved break,” Alex Cruz, British Airways’ chairman and CEO, said. “We have put in place measures – to UK Government and aviation regulator standards – to ensure we’re doing all we can to protect the wellbeing of our customers and colleagues and we’ll be asking them to play their part in that too.”
