text: Wizz Air announces plans to resume flights to Portugal and Greece
  Carrier will fly from Luton in mid-June after installing coronavirus safety measures
  A Wizz Air cabin crew will be required to wear masks and gloves on all flights and will distribute sanitising wipes for passengers. Photograph: PA
  Julia Kollewe and Miles Brignall
  Tue 5 May 2020 10.54 EDT Last modified on Wed 1 Jul 2020 12.31 EDT
  Wizz Air has said it will restart holiday flights from Luton airport to Portugal in mid-June and to Greece in July in the hope that Covid-19 travel restrictions will be lifted.
  Announcing five new routes, the low-cost airline said from 16 June flights would depart from the London airport to Faro in Portugal, with prices starting at £25.99, and to Corfu, Heraklion, Rhodes and Zakynthos in Greece from the start of July.
  Wizz Air has introduced new rules, including compulsory face masks for passengers and staff as well as gloves for crew, to make people feel more confident about flying.
  It will also give sanitising wipes to travellers and no longer provide magazines. The airline says it encourages travellers to observe physical distancing at the airport but it will fill middle seats on aircrafts if there is enough demand.
  Alexandre de Juniac, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, said during the group's weekly briefing there was no evidence that leaving the middle seat empty would improve passenger safety.
  UK nationals will be able to fly, assuming travel restrictions are lifted. The UK Foreign Office currently advises British nationals against all but essential international travel.
  Portugal and Greece have started relaxing their lockdowns, although travel restrictions remain. Greece's tourism minister, Haris Theoharis, said last month the sector hoped to be open for business in July.
  European flights have come to a virtual standstill during the coronavirus lockdowns, with only a few services operating for essential travel, such as people being repatriated, going to work or to transport medical supplies.
  Budapest-based Wizz Air became the first airline to resume commercial flights to and from Luton last Friday, and also restarted flights from Vienna. Most of the more than 100 passengers arriving at Luton from Sofia, Bulgaria, on a Wizz Air flight on Friday were seasonal farm workers.
  The Dutch airline KLM also said on Tuesday that it had resumed operations to a number of its European destinations. It is now running a daily flight from Amsterdam to Barcelona, Budapest, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan, Prague, Rome and Warsaw.
  KLM said from 11 May travellers must bring face masks that cover their nose and mouth. It expects to keep this measure in place until the end of August.
  Anyone not wearing a sufficient face covering will receive a mask from KLM. If its stock runs out, the traveller will not be allowed on the flight.
  Most other airlines remain grounded including British Airways.
  Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, said it flew just 40,000 passengers in April and expected traffic to remain minimal in May and June. The Irish carrier said its passenger numbers dropped 99.6% from April last year, when it flew 13.5 million people. It operated 600 flights over the month, including a number of rescue and medical missions on behalf of EU governments.
  Ryanair announced 3,000 job cuts among pilots and cabin crew last week and warned that flights would remain grounded until at least July.