KLM will maintain long-haul flights.
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.
See also: KLM will eliminate between 800 and 1,000 additional jobs.
KLM said earlier in the week 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 coronavirus test taken just before departure, Reuters reported.
But KLM on Saturday evening said it had reached a compromise in which flight crew on high coronavirus risk flights would take a rapid antigen test before departure from the Netherlands and after their return.
See also: Norwegian Air gets government backing for its plan.
Crew would also have to follow strict quarantine rules during their stay abroad, the health ministry said.
The Netherlands last week 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 coronavirus mutations.
Passengers traveling 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.
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