While the Netherlands has banned passenger flights due to the discovery of a new variant of the corona virus in the United Kingdom, numerous flights from the UK landed in Innsbruck over the weekend. In Salzburg, the offer is limited to the London Heathrow route.

Taking into account the current pandemic situation, an unusually large number of flights landed in Innsbruck at the weekend. These came almost exclusively from the UK. These were carried out by Easyjet and British Airways. Tuifly UK's offer did not go through.

How many people were on board is unclear, because there is actually a ban on accommodation for tourist purposes in Austria. Hoteliers are currently only allowed to rent their accommodations to business travelers. Also, since December 19, 2020, those entering the country have had a ten-day quarantine, which can be shortened from the fifth day by testing, if this is negative, at your own expense. How the vacationers spend and comply with their quarantine is completely unclear, as hotels are officially not allowed to accept tourists. According to reports, however, the load on the UK-Tyrol direction should have been weak. Most people who work in Austria but live in the United Kingdom are said to have flown in the opposite direction.

Due to the appearance of a new, not yet researched variant of the coronavirus, virologists consulted by Aviation Direct are critical of the state of Tyrol's approach. However, since it is unclear how many people were actually on board, a more detailed assessment cannot be made. At most, the virologists uniformly said that one should try to prevent the new mutation from being introduced to the mainland, and a flight and travel ban could possibly be helpful. However, since the new variant has already been identified on the mainland - at least in the Netherlands - it would now be necessary to research whether it has not already "spread" unnoticed and then flight bans would be ineffective anyway.