LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - British low-cost airline
easyJet said it would ground most of its aircraft from
Tuesday in response to travel restrictions aimed to prevent the
spread of the coronavirus.
The airline said it would run repatriation flights for
customers over the weekend that it expected would end by Monday,
and thereafter would still operate a minimal schedule of
essential services on some routes.
"We know how important it is for customers to get home and
so are continuing to operate rescue flights over the coming days
to repatriate them," said chief executive Johan Lundgren.
"Significantly reducing our flying programme is the right
thing to do when many countries have issued advice to their
citizens not to travel unless it is essential, and the aircraft
groundings will also remove significant levels of variable costs
at a time when this remains crucial."
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison)