The KLM subsidiary Transavia is preparing to fly to three holiday destinations again in June: Spain, Portugal, and Greece. The governments of these countries are desperate to salvage something for their vital tourism industries from the wreckage of the northern hemisphere summer.
Any airline needs to negotiate two main hurdles in their restart programme; firstly whether their prospective passengers trust them enough to protect them from the coronavirus, and secondly, will (or perhaps when) will both ends of the journey allow travel, and for whom.
So far, Transavia seems to have successfully navigated these difficulties. From 4th June, the Schiphol-based LCC will resume with flights to Malaga in Spain, Athens in Greece and Lisbon & Faro in Portugal, From 10th June it will add Alicante to its Spanish destinations and Porto to those in Portugal.
Portugal is lifting its travel restrictions from 4th June, Spain on 15th June and Greece (at least for Dutch nationals) on 31st May.
However the airline is still asking its passengers to be flexible as restrictions are relaxed or tightened—there are cases where the coronavirus has flared again, and these are difficult to predict. Recently Transavia had planned flights to two Greek destinations—Thessaloniki and Heraklion– only to cancel them when the authorities restricted movements unexpectedly.
As for virus protection on board, Transavia has announced that all passengers and crew will be required to wear face masks and that their aircraft will be deep-cleaned and disinfected daily. There’s no mention of making middle seats vacant on these very welcome holiday flights.
