Poland will allow flights with all states in the European Schengen area from next Wednesday, 30 September, under a planned update to its no-fly list.
That would mean that connections with Spain, which have been suspended since 2 September, could resume, despite the country experiencing an ongoing rise in new coronavirus infections.
The United States, Israel and Brazil remain on the no-fly list, while among the countries set to be added to it – and which will therefore see flights suspended – are India, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and North Macedonia.
For all 29 countries included in the infrastructure ministry’s draft proposal – which, once approved by the government, will go into force on 30 September and last until 13 October – see the bottom of this article.
“October is low season for the aviation market,” notes Marcin Horała, the deputy infrastructure minister. “We can also see that many carriers themselves are cancelling some connections [and] the occupancy rate is falling.”
“Thus the assumed effect of bans – reducing the scale of travel to countries with a higher degree of infection – results [anyway] from a natural market trend,” continues Horała, quoted by Radio Zet. “Therefore we can safely continue the gradual lifting of bans.”
Poland is itself currently experiencing a rise in coronavirus infections. The country today registered its highest ever daily number of new cases, breaking the previous record that was set yesterday.
During its lockdown, Poland closed its borders in mid-March, suspending all international and domestic flights. The latter were allowed to resume at the end of May, with international connections following in mid-June.
Subsequently, the list of countries with which flights are suspended has been regularly updated. The most recent one, which went into force on 16 September, included 30 countries, down from 44 previously.
However, earlier this week, one of those countries, France, was removed after it ensured that only people with a negative coronavirus test result would be allowed to fly, reports Wprost.
The new list issued today by the infrastructure ministry sees six further countries removed: Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Namibia, Suriname and Bolivia.
The government notes, however, that the list could still be adjusted before implementation on Wednesday. Last-minute changes have been made to previous no-fly lists.
Full list of countries with which flights will be suspended from 30 September-13 October (countries in bold are new additions):
Belize
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro
Brazil
Bahrain
Israel
Qatar
Kuwait
Libya
United Arab Emirates
Argentina
Chile
Ecuador
India
Iraq
Colombia
Costa Rica
Lebanon
North Macedonia
Maldives
Moldova
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Trinidad and Tobago
Cape Verde
USA
Oman
Bahamas
Main image credit: UN Women/Ploy Phutpheng (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
