Airlines start to scrap UK’s flights after new lockdown

Bloomberg

Airlines kicked off 2021 by shrinking their already meager UK schedules, prompted by a new coronavirus lockdown and the prospect of further restrictions on travel abroad.
EasyJet Plc, Britain’s biggest discount carrier, pared back its flying program to prioritise essential connections between key UK cities and “a small number of international routes.” British Airways said it’ll keep crucial links open, while TUI AG halted all package holiday tours from the UK through mid-February, when the new lockdown is set
to end.
A spokeswoman for Wizz Air Holdings Plc, which has been adding UK bases in an effort to emerge stronger from the pandemic, said it will review capacity to ensure that it remains appropriate to demand.
The fast-spreading virus strain that’s driven up UK case counts has also dashed airline-industry hopes of relief from 2020’s unrelenting downturn. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new coronavirus lockdown that will keep most people at home until mid-February, when vaccines being rolled out are able to stem the worst infection rates since the start of the outbreak.
EasyJet had already reduced its schedule for next week by one-third and Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest discounter, by two-thirds, said John Grant, senior analyst at travel data provider OAG.
“The news will see those numbers go down further,” Grant said in an email. “Whilst the news is no surprise and most airlines and airports had been expecting this to happen, it is nevertheless another setback to the recovery.”
IAG SA-owned British Airways is reviewing its plans, a spokesman said. TUI, the German tour operator with a large base of British customers, had already culled most of its UK program, with only some destinations including St Lucia, Cuba and Aruba served. These trips have now been cancelled.
Further restrictions on international travel are in the works, including talks with authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on coordinated curbs, UK Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said on LBC Radio. The plans include requiring arriving passengers to present a negative coronavirus test, the Times newspaper reported, citing an unnamed former Downing Street official.
Johnson said that people should stay home as Britain wrestles with the fast-spreading strain. The government forbid all leisure travel and advised UK residents to check with carriers on arrangements for returning.
Some European Union countries are considering revising restrictions placed last month when the UK mutation began to receive attention.
Hungary lifted its flight ban with the UK, while Swiss aviation authorities said that a decision to bar incoming travel from Britain except for returning residents were due to be reviewed.