UK: Airlines cautiously return to the sky

London to Glasgow is a small hop for an Airbus A320 jet. But it will be a significant leap out of lockdown for easyJet when its first scheduled flight since late March takes to the skies at 7am on Monday. No passenger has climbed into its orange-and-white planes since 11 weeks ago, when the airline shut down operations after flying its last holidaymakers from Tenerife back to Gatwick. Now, even though Covid-19 is in retreat (at best), airlines are praying for business to return. Some have kept flying a few routes throughout the restrictions, but this week will see a first, small ramp-up of services, among which easyJet’s resurrection is the most significant in the UK. Only 10 aircraft of its fleet of more than 300 will be in service on Monday, operating domestic flights between airports including Bristol, Liverpool, Belfast and Newcastle, as well as services within continental Europe around Switzerland, France, Italy and Portugal. A total of 310 flights are scheduled this week. Ryanair has maintained a skeleton service between Dublin and British airports and a handful of flights from Stansted to Europe while grounding 99% of its aircraft. Next Sunday it adds 79 routes between the UK and Ireland and Poland, which has reopened borders and lifted restrictions this weekend. From July, the airline hopes to bring back 40% of its schedule.<br/>