When will we be able to fly again? What could the summer holidays look like?

On Monday, the Luxembourg government presented the second phase of the gradual lockdown exit which foresees the lifting of several restrictions from next week on. 

The advice of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs remains the same, advising against all non-essential trips abroad. For the future, “Luxembourg is in favour of coordination at EU level with regard to travel advice, particularly with a view on the upcoming summer holidays” said a Ministry spokesperson on Monday.

According to a recent survey, conducted by market intelligence agency Quest in Luxembourg, the desire to travel this summer, should the situation allow it, differs widely across the Luxembourgish population: While 49 % of the people said that they would like to leave the country, 40 % of the people said that they will stay in Luxembourg, have already cancelled their booking or are indecisive and will monitor the evolution very closely. 11 % had not planned to leave at all.

RTL Today talked to Mr Schroeder who represents LuxairGroup, which consists of Luxair, LuxairTours, LuxairServices and LuxairCARGO about how the situation looks like from their perspective:

When do you think Luxair will be able to fly again and how will it look like?

“We have an internal deadline with a start date beginning of June for Luxair and LuxairTours and we have to wait and see if we can keep this deadline or if there will be a slight delay.

We depend on the developments around us. Naturally, planes from Luxembourg always immediately cross borders. Each country has a different lockdown exit strategy and we are in contact with all of them, their airports and with the hotels to evaluate how we can safely start our operations again. Who can open under which conditions? With the hotels for example, we are working on a charter to ensure the safety of the clients.

Mid-May will be an important date for us. This is when the new guidelines by the EASA, the Europe Union Aviation Safety Agency, will come out, which the Group will then implement accordingly. These guidelines will outline the future of flying and try to provide answers to the many questions. For example, ‘Will there have to be a free space between each costumer or not?’, ‘Can families sit together?’  If there is a directive that one has to fly in a certain way then that is how it has to be. We will try to make the most out of the situation.”

Depending on what these regulations consist of he says:

“At some point we would of course have to see if offering a flight still makes sense from an ecologic view.”

Joe Schroeder / © LuxairGroup

At the moment, he cannot say anything about the question if tickets will become more expensive.

It is not sure yet in which countries LuxairTours might be able to operate again as this will surely depend on how affected the countries were by the virus. They try to prepare themselves for every eventuality with various ideas and concepts.

What concrete measures do you consider to keep travellers safe?

“We have concrete ideas for the handling of the passengers but that does not mean that all of these will be realised. As for us, staff will be trained and planes will be cleaned and potentially disinfected.

The wearing of masks for passengers seems to be a very likely scenario and it will be interesting to see if a certain type of masks will be mandatory. Crews will definitely have to wear masks and gloves.”

He does not believe that catering will be offered, at least not in the beginning but the company is thinking about different ways of providing food, including giving out food already at the beginning of the flight.

“Can people take luggage along in the beginning or not?” is another question that the company is working on, and “What will they be able to take along and in which manner?”

According to Mr Schroeder, the air conditioning in the planes is not a problem at all. To the contrary: all of the planes are equipped with HEPA filters and the air exchange takes place every 3 minutes. The air conditioning system is the same as the one used in surgeries, which means that bacteria or viruses will be filtered. Furthermore, the air circulation is vertical and not across the plane.

In order for the planes, which now are grounded since a couple of weeks, to become functional again, they will have to go through several days of special maintenance.

© LuxairGroup

The World Travel and Tourism Council, WTTC, which represents the global private sector of travel and tourism outlines the potential handling of the passengers before check-in and after their arrival in their latest press release:

“…There will be new protocols for check-in involving digital technology; hand sanitiser stations at frequent points, including where luggage is stored; contactless payment instead of cash; using stairs more often than lifts where the 2 metre rule can be harder to maintain; and fitness equipment being moved for greater separation among other examples.”

Schroeder says that they do not want to have surprises for their costumers and that they offer legal security, with no one left behind. During the Corona crisis, they were able to repatriate each costumer with the last passenger returning on 23 March.

“One thing is clear, things will start slowly, and the question about which destinations at which frequency is not clear, yet. We will probably not be back to the old “normal” before 2021. There is zero clarity for anyone.”