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Wizz Air Becomes One of the First EU Airlines to Resume Flights Amid Coronavirus Travel Restrictions

European air travel has ground to a halt as travel restrictions and social distancing measure have been introduced in order to combat the coronavirus pandemic. While most budget airlines have grounded their flights for months to come, Wizz Air has announced that it intends to resume services from 1 May.
Sputnik

Budget airline Wizz Air will be restarting some flights from London’s Luton Airport from 1 May, Reuters reports, citing the company managing director's statement on Saturday, .

 “As we restart selected Luton flights to provide an essential service to passengers who need to travel, our primary concern is the health, safety and well-being of our customers and crew", said Owain Jones.
“The protective measures that we are implementing will ensure the most sanitary conditions possible".
“We encourage our customers to watch our new video on how to stay safe when traveling, as well as for more details on our new health and safety measures", he added.

The "enhanced" health and safety measures due to the coronavirus pandemic will also require cabin crew to wear masks and gloves throughout the entirety of the flight.

The resumption of flights on 1 May will also include new distancing measures upon boarding and aircraft will be disinfected overnight in order to protect passengers.

Wizz Air chief executive Josef Varadi told Travel Weekly that the flights would not operate at full capacity due to social distancing techniques.

“The industry will have to address physical distancing", he said, adding: “In the first few months planes will not be filled".

Wizz Air explained that it was looking to "provide an essential service to passengers who need to travel”.

The 15 destinations which the airline intends to restart flights include parts of Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Portugal, the Canary Islands, and Israel.

The move will make Wizz Air one of the first European flight providers to resume services that were halted as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

It comes as European air traffic has dropped by 90 percent and budget airlines such as Easyjet have reported sharp falls in demand

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