Easyjet cancels this Saturday's flights to Gibraltar

Easyjet has cancelled this Saturday's flights to the Rock. The airline's flight tracker says the Luton and Gatwick services on the 21st have been cancelled due to what the airline says are new Health and Travel regulations to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus.

As the number of Covid-19 cases surge across Europe, airlines have been facing unprecedented challenges. Forced cancellations due to frozen demand has brought Gibraltar-serving airlines British Airways and Easyjet to ground fleets and cut staff jobs as they try to stay afloat.

All this whilst university students scramble to book flights, and get home before a potential UK lockdown.

Today's Easyet flight from Bristol was also cancelled, this, with just a days notice. Again, the airline cited new health and travel regulations. Adding that it had no option but to cancel the flight and that the disruption is beyond its control and considered an extraordinary circumstance. The cancellations follow the airline completely halting flights to Spain, with around a quarter of its fleet now grounded.

Scaling back, British Airways has announced staff job cuts, with reports that the airline owner IAG will be reducing capacity by 75%. These, as well as other airlines, such as Ryanair and Virgin are desperately seeking government bailout to avoid completely going under.

British Airways, cancelled six of its flights to Gibraltar, when the virus first erupted. With Malaga airport now out of the question due to Spain's travel ban, routes to get to the Rock are substantially reduced. So where does this leave our many students abroad? The Government says there are 1086 Gibraltarians studying outside Gibraltar. 1010 of these are based in the UK.

London School of Economics, University College London and Durham University were some of the the first to close down class teaching and move online. Oxford university is now preparing to do the same. With so many closing and others following suit, there's been a flurry of students desperate to return to the Rock.

GBC understands that the EZ8901 flight from Gatwick to Gibraltar on Monday 23rd is also cancelled. GBC is seeking further information on the status of all other upcoming Easyjet flights.

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