Following the news that a new and highly contagious strain of coronavirus has been discovered in England, the Netherlands announced that it would ban all flights from the UK.

At the moment, Luxair is flying to London once or twice per day, and announced that it would in any case continue doing so on 21, 22, and 23 December. Upon enquiry, Luxair CEO Gilles Feith stated on Sunday morning that the airline would fly for as long as it could.

No changes are currently planned. Feith pointed out that the situation in Luxembourg is different and that all passengers are offered free PCR tests upon arrival at Luxembourg Airport. The Luxair CEO also thinks that it might be useful to combine the PCR tests with rapid tests. This would allow people to take adequate measures even before they receive the result of the PCR test.

Read more: Dutch ban UK flights to stop virus 'mutation'

New strains of coronavirus have been discovered before, e.g. in Spain during the summer, and no special restrictions were taken back then, the Luxair CEO pointed out. There are currently three main strains circulating in Luxembourg, according to Luxembourg's National Public Health Laboratory.