The number of flight movements at London's Heathrow Airport is still high enough for MPs to ask the UK Aviation Minister for an explanation of current air traffic. London airport Heathrow Airport normally has about 600 flights during an average day landing in those countries, but now in the UK 'lockdown' this number has fallen back to about 60 flights daily. 

Other smaller UK airports only receive a few flights between the smaller airports themselves. Ended in a letter Friday, the British aviation minister gave text and explanation as to why flights were still available. It is the various airlines that say that almost all of their passengers on their flights to Heathrow are people going home and deciding which routes to run.

"No one is on vacation," said Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, representing British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and other British airlines. "I saw from a distance how a few passengers with masks appeared after flying in on British Airways from Los Angeles."

Some people on social media have wondered why there is still air traffic from countries like the US, Italy and Spain, which also have Covid-19. Alitalia states that the four daily flights between Rome and London are 'quite empty' flying to Heathrow. On the return trip to Rome, however, the planes are “almost full” with Italian citizens who want to fly back to Italy. People traveling to Italy must fill in a statement to say their travel is essential.

social distance possible

Madrid and Barcelona, ​​like Heathrow, are hub airports. This means that many passengers flying in from there started their journey elsewhere, such as airports in Latin America. Many people who fly to Heathrow travel on and fly straight back to another destination. Airlines are unable or unwilling to disclose exactly how many passengers they have carried to London from air traffic.

However, American Airlines said that "social distancing"was possible"for all passengersSuggesting that her planes have many empty seats. The number of passengers is so low for the Dutch airline KLM that it has had to cancel the only daily flight from Schiphol to Heathrow in recent days. In normal times, 11 of those flights are performed in one day.

Also read: Environmental organizations want conditions for support for KLM