France suspends flights with Brazil indefinitely.
The French government announced Tuesday the suspension “until further notice” of flights from Brazil to try to prevent the spread of the Brazilian strain of the coronavirus.
“We have decided to suspend until further notice all flights between Brazil and France,” said Prime Minister Jean Castex in a debate in the National Assembly on health control measures.
See also: Jet2 extends flight suspension until June 23.
The suspension must be approved in the Assembly and the Senate before coming into force tomorrow, Wednesday, and its announcement marks a change of approach by the French government, which until now opposed the suspension of air links.
“The situation in Brazil is absolutely dramatic and the dangerousness of the variant in question presents us with real difficulties,” Castex assured deputies, before adding that “the situation is worsening” in that country.
Air France is the only French airline operating direct flights to Brazil.
See also: Copa Airlines temporarily suspends flights to Bucaramanga.
As confirmed by an Air France spokesman to EFE, this suspension will mean the cancellation of 11 weekly flights, one daily to Sao Paulo and four per week to Rio de Janeiro.
“Air France is cancelling its flights to and from Brazil scheduled for tomorrow,” the spokesman said. Starting tomorrow, “the flight schedule will be adjusted in accordance with government instructions. Customers affected will be notified individually,” he added.
On the other hand, tonight’s two flights to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will be maintained, “because the processing of passengers had already begun,” he said.
Currently, all passengers arriving from Brazil must provide a compelling reason justifying their trip, show a negative PCR test performed within the last 72 hours and undergo an antigen test at the French airport of arrival.
They must then be isolated for a period of ten days, although there is no control mechanism to verify compliance with this measure.
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