EasyJet aircraft will take to the skies Monday for the first time since March 30, as the British carrier resumes a small number of mainly domestic flights after weeks of lockdown. Passengers, who under easyJet’s new rules must wear face masks, were to board the airline’s first flight from London’s Gatwick airport to Glasgow that was due to depart at 0600 GMT. The airline is starting with a minimal service, flying mainly routes within Britain to cities including Edinburgh and Belfast. It is also resuming some domestic and international routes from France, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal. While borders across Europe are being opened, a hoped-for travel recovery in easyJet’s home market of Britain has been put at risk by a 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals.<br/>
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German charter airline Condor will cut up to 25% of its employees to reduce costs and recover from the coronavirus crisis, CE Ralf Teckentrup told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung weekly. "Like other airlines, we will have to cut about 15% to 25% of jobs. That would be between 650 and 1,000 jobs," Teckentrup told the Sunday newspaper, adding he expected a crisis in the airline sector to last until 2024. In April, Germany's government and the federal state of Hesse agreed to give Condor loans worth E550m after the owner of Poland's LOT pulled out of a deal to buy the group. "We will have lower income and higher costs and have to repay state aid ... Average ticket prices will rise," said Teckentrup.<br/>
A China Southern Airlines flight from Dhaka to Guangzhou will be suspended for four weeks from June 22 due to concerns about COVID-19 infections, China's aviation regulator said on Sunday. Seventeen passengers on a June 11 flight from the Bangladeshi capital to the southern Chinese city tested positive for the coronavirus, meeting the conditions for a "circuit breaker" suspension of the service, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.<br/>
Virgin Atlantic Airways is seeking UK government support for a revised rescue package after attracting private offers for hundreds of millions of pounds in funding, people with knowledge of the situation said. The cash-strapped carrier is waiting to hear whether Britain will provide guarantees for proposals including a revolving credit facility, the people said, asking not to be named as the talks are private. CEO Shai Weiss’s pitch to potential backers led to offers from more than one financial institution, the people said. Virgin Atlantic’s lack of an investment-grade credit rating means it can’t tap Britain’s main Covid Corporate Financing Facility. The Department for Transport told the carrier it should seek private funding, including from founder Richard Branson, before the government would consider underwriting a bespoke package. While the 69-year-old billionaire has pledged more cash, the airline also needs an outside investor to secure its survival. Virgin Atlantic said it’s exploring all options for obtaining external funding. “Constructive discussions with a number of stakeholders are progressing,” a spokeswoman said. “Meanwhile the airline remains in a stable position.”<br/>
Air Namibia grounded all international flights not already wiped out by the coronavirus after the country’s president, Hage Geingob, said the state carrier should be liquidated. The southwest African nation’s carrier has received about 8.3b Namibian dollars ($485m) in government funding over the past two decades and Geingob said earlier this month the country “cannot afford to keep rescuing a loss-making airline.” “Air Namibia must be liquidated, we have a serious problem, it must be restructured, it is not making any profits and it is just being bailed out,” the president told lawmakers following a June 4 national address. “We must do something about it.” His comments have made some creditors and suppliers nervous, CFO Werner Schuckmann told the Namibian Sun. The airline cancelled charter flights to repatriate people stranded by coronavirus travel bans on Monday, though domestic services remain available for booking. Namibia’s borders have been closed to commercial travelers since March.<br/>
Swiss start-up carrier FlyBair is aiming to commence services next month, operating initially to the Spanish resort of Palma de Mallorca. The airline says it will open two routes to the city from Bern and Sion from 18 July. FlyBair had been intending to launch operations in May but postponed its debut by two months. CE Jose Gonzalez says the company’s opening of flights is “the result of hard work”, and that the airline will expand to seven destinations, through an adapted schedule, over the remainder of the summer. These additional routes will include Crete and Rhodes, from August, and Jerez, Kos, Menorca and Preveza from September. But it will not start a planned Olbia route this summer. <br/>