The Austrian Ministry of Health confirmed on Sunday that a ban would be imposed on passenger flights taking off in the United Kingdom. The background is that a new mutation of the coronavirus, which is said to be much more contagious, was found in the island state.

The Netherlands responded as the first state and already issued a flight ban on the weekend. Belgium and Italy have meanwhile also announced such a step. The next steps are being examined in Germany and France. The Netherlands and Belgium also cut rail and ferry traffic if it comes from the United Kingdom. The aim is to prevent the spread of the virus on the mainland by blocking traffic routes.

It is still unclear how long the flight bans, which are now gradually being rolled out, will last. Most countries are currently aiming for January 1, 2021. In view of the experiences of spring 2020, however, it can be assumed that the ban could be extended. The tourist business in Tyrol and Salzburg would have been finally called off with longer flight bans, although this is already extremely complicated due to mutual quarantine regulations.

However, this did not prevent charter airlines from flying heavily from the UK to Innsbruck on weekends. Since there was no official prohibition at that time, all flights were of course completely legal. More on this in this report.