Cristina Hodgson
INTERNATIONAL airlines have begun to schedule their flights and are maintaining their commitment to Malaga.
But the financial situation of the airlines is so dire that giants such as Air France and Lufthansa have asked their governments for help to overcome the coronavirus crisis.
And while industry experts say the sector will not recover until 2023, air travel, though reduced, is at least being scheduled – and the plans are making Malaga a priority.
Most airlines have minimised flights with the aim to gradually increase service over time, with initial routes scheduled for late June and early July.
Ryanair has already announced that it will fly to Malaga from July 1, while routes will also be restarted across the majority of its 80 European bases.
It’s expected that Vueling, with an average of 2.1 million passengers flying into Malaga each year, will announce its flight routes in the next few days.
Jet2.com has also highlighted its commitment to Malaga, with flights starting from July 1 departing from nine British cities; Leeds-Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, London-Stansted, East Midlands, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Lufthansa has also included Malaga in its first plans to resume flights after months of COVID-19 lockdown.
The German carrier will fly from mid-June to five Spanish airports. Besides Malaga, it will offer flights to Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.
The airline expects to recover, by the end of June, 1,800 weekly connections to 130 destinations around the world, representing 14% of the 13,000 connections before the pandemic.
The Portuguese airline TAP has also announced it will increase weekly connections from July 1.
Flights will cover Lisbon to Madrid and Barcelona with 14 weekly flights, and three weekly connections to Malaga and Sevilla.
Alitalia will be the first airline to start flight routes, expecting to do so from June 3.
The Italian airline aims to gradually regain connections to its major destinations in Spain, including Malaga.
The main Belgian airline, Brussels Airlines, has also announced its return to the skies, forecast to run 30% of its intra-European flights.
Flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga will resume by Brussels Airlines from June 15.
Tenerife, Las Palmas, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca will have to wait until June 22, and Bilbao until July.
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