CORONAVIRUS LATEST - AIRLINES ARE STILL SELLING TICKETS FOR FLIGHTS IN MAY DESPITE LOCKDOWN

i News 4 April 2020

Several airlines are still selling flights abroad despite a global lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Flights are available from a number of carriers to several popular holiday destinations as early as late April despite officials warning that the travel restrictions could last several months.

Easyjet, which grounded its entire fleet of 344 aircraft last week because of the virus, is selling tickets for departures on May 1.

The budget airline was selling £34.99 tickets from London Gatwick to Milan in northern Italy, where there have been 14,681 deaths so far and almost 120,000 cases of coronavirus.

© Provided by The i The empty arrivals concourse at Terminal 5 of Heathrow airport. (PA)

According to The Times, at least one ticket for the route has been sold in the past 24 hours.

Tui, the package holiday operator, is also reportedly selling getaways to a number of virus hotspots for as early as April 21.

A £330-per-person break to the Spanish resort of Alicante is one of several short breaks available through the company's website.

British Airways is also selling a full range of tickets from May 1. Yesterday, it was offering £32 flights between London Gatwick and Bergamo, northern Italy.

An Easyjet spokesperson told The Times: “At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights and we are evaluating continuously based on changing regulations and customer demand.

"Whilst our crew are furloughed for two months we remain ready to operate within that timeframe if we are able to do so.

© Provided by The i “We have an ongoing rolling cancellation programme in place and are working through these having taken April off sale.”

90% reduction in flights

Travel restrictions have led to dozens of airlines grounding their fleets. (PA)

It comes as the National Air Traffic Service (Nats) revealed that air traffic in the UK is down by almost 90% compared with this time last year.

Only 832 flights were handled in UK airspace on Thursday 2 April, compared to 7,240, which were handled on the equivalent flying day last year – a decrease of 89%.

“Traffic has consistently been down by 89% since Tuesday,” a spokesperson for Nats said.

The International Air Transport Association has estimated that the UK could see 113.5 million fewer passengers travelling through its airports in 2020, a drop of more than a third compared with 2019.

Multiple airlines have been hit financially by the crisis including British Airways, which has been forced to make cuts affecting up to 28,000 workers.

Ryanair expects to carry “minimal if any” traffic this April and May as the coronavirus pandemic forces its fleet to stay largely grounded.

The company said that the number of passengers it carried in March was 48% lower than the same month last year.

It is currently flying less than 20 daily flights, compared to its usual 2,500.

i has contacted Tui, British Airways and Easyjet for comment.