It’s again Sunday, time for an overview of what has happened during the week in the travel industry.

Travel industry news 2nd week June

COVID-19 Friendly Catering Revealed By British Airways

British Airways revealed a new onboard catering offering in response to the current global pandemic. Food for all the cabins will be served in pre-packaged meal boxes, disposable containers and all cutlery will be plastic and pre-packaged.

It is unknown for the moment when the regular service will resume, as this will depend on how the Covid-19 situation develops.

British Airways will still offer snacks between meals on long-haul flights, and a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages will still be available to accompany meals.

All passengers will get a bottle of water as part of the service, regardless of the class of travel or length of the flight.

All food will now be served in a box.

First Class Meal

First Class Afternoon Tea

Business Class Meal

Business Class Breakfast

Business Class Meal on Short Haul Flights

World Traveler Plus and World Traveler Meal

World Traveler Plus and World Traveler Breakfast

On short haul flights every passenger in the economy class will also be given a bottle of water and a snack.

Travel within Schengen possible again

Most of Europe will be open again for tourism and travel within the Schengen area from 15th June onward. An exception seems to be Sweden, which is banned from many countries, as well as the UK, as they have imposed a 14 days self-quarantine time.

Austria and Switzerland banning very cheap air tickets

Both countries decided that cheap “couple of euro” fares are no longer allowed. Basically both countries are introducing some kind of tax which will set the price to be at least 30€ for short haul flights.

Singapore Airlines bans First class and Suites until September

Singapore Airlines is grounding its B777 and A380, which have their first and suite classes installed until at least September, so no more first class here until then.

Lufthansa guarantees that they will bring you home

Lufthansa is the first airlines which proactively advertises that no matter what future travel restrictions will be, they will bring you home if you booked a flight with them and are currently stuck at the destination. We are wondering how they can guarantee that when, for example, all travel from a country will be banned.

Qantas suspends all international routes except New Zealand

On their website, you can read the following:

All Qantas and Jetstar scheduled international flights, except for flights between Australia and New Zealand, are suspended until at least the end of July 2020, due to government restrictions.
All Qantas and Jetstar scheduled flights between Australia and New Zealand are suspended until at least the end of June 2020.
Last updated: 5 June 2020”

Cathay Pacific gets aid by Hong Kong government

Around 39 billion HKD will be received in funding and Hong Kong will acquire some stakes in the airline. Like this, the airline will be able to stand up during the ongoing crisis and the travel bans introduced by Hong Kong. However, the business model of the airline will be review which could lead to drastic changes….