KLM to keep long haul flights as Covid testing demands are softened

Amsterdam

DUTCH airline KLM will keep operating long haul flights, including for vaccine distribution, after agreeing with the government on softer demands for returning air crews to carry out rapid Covid-19 tests.

The Dutch arm of Air France-KLM said earlier last week that it would cancel all its 270 weekly long-haul flights to the Netherlands as a result of new Covid-19 rules, requiring passengers and crew to show evidence of a negative rapid Covid-19 test taken just before departure.

KLM at the time said this would make it impossible to keep flying to countries with a high risk of Covid-19 infections, as it would risk having to leave crew behind.

It warned that this would also hurt vaccine distribution as cargo flights would also be cancelled.

But KLM on Saturday evening said it that had reached a compromise in which flight crew on high Covid-19 risk flights would take a rapid antigen test before departure from the Netherlands and after their return.

Crew would also have to follow strict quarantine rules during their stay abroad, the health ministry said.

The Netherlands recently decided to ban all passenger flights from Great Britain, South Africa and South America for up to a month, in a bid to limit the spread of new Covid-19 mutations.

Passengers travelling to Amsterdam from other high-risk countries are still required to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 rapid test taken just before departure, in addition to a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of travel. REUTERS