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Once again, Wizz Air canceled hundreds of flights to Hungary due to falling demand. The company announced Friday morning that it will cut its October capacity to 50 percent last year across the network, and the schedule shows that the situation at the two Hungarian bases, Budapest and Debrecen, is much more dire. The reason is clearly the border blockade.
Man designs, Wizz Air performs
Wizz Air’s practice is to plan optimistically: that is, it announces many flights and then adjusts the schedule to suit your needs three to four weeks before the current time based on your booking details. This has meant continuous and drastic suppressions in recent weeks. The days were the second and third week of October. During this period, a total of eight flights remained, after the closure of the still operational routes in September: Cyprus, Malta, Brussels and Athens.
London operates five flights a week, with Basel, Berlin, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Milan, Paris and Stockholm two a week. Two a week is very rare, but actually the weight loss in London is really dramatic.
A year ago, five more flights a day were heading to the British capital, which means that the number of flights was reduced by a seventh. These planes were usually full, and even with a bit of hype, no matter how many planes had been launched to London, there would be passengers.
The Debrecen base has been suspended by Wizz Air since the announcement of the border closure, the airport is served from the London base and since then there are only two flights a week. This will continue to be the case in at least October.
This year’s winter time change will also be on the last Sunday in October, after which, depending on the current situation, more than 20 more routes can be restarted. However, it is not worth making serious plans for this yet. If the epidemic situation does not improve and entry rules are not relaxed, it is likely that only the Hungary-based discount airline will provide the typical minimum October service.
Shattered families
The drastic drop in demand is clearly due to fear of the virus and the closure of the border. This is demonstrated by the brutal court in London. Traffic to the UK is mainly due to travel by workers and their families. Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians work in the island nation, and they, their family and friends generate enormous traffic. This has now been virtually reset due to edge lock.
In the forums and professional portals, those affected received the expansion of the border lock with great indignation. Many were confident that the lock would last for a short time so that they would not be ripped from their loved ones. However, based on the current position, it is unclear when it will end. Under current rules, the decree will expire on October 1, but the prime minister has previously said that it will remain in effect. Following the announcement, the prime minister’s Facebook page was flooded with angry and desperate comments.
For those with a British interest, maintaining the border blockade means that they will be separated from family members for an unpredictable period of time. The most desperate calculate that they also have to spend Christmas separated from their loved ones.
Due to the border blockade, a visit to a relative that was previously a loose weekend has turned into a long and expensive ordeal. Hungarians working in London cannot return home because they will be quarantined for two weeks when they return as Hungary has been removed from the list of safe countries. It’s easy to see that many employers won’t applaud these two weeks of sick leave.
So it remains for the Hungarians to go to London. Of course, they are also required to have two weeks of quarantine, but this can still happen with a family member. Upon returning from London, proceed to the official quarantine. It is ten days, and although it can be triggered by two negative pcr tests, there is not much chance that it will be handled in that long, not to mention that it will cost 39 thousand guilders.
So a kinship visit is quite a long program, you can count on more than three weeks for whoever does it. This is hardly feasible under employment conditions. Then there is the skype, the wait or the trick.
Családegyesítő Bt.
It can also be done wisely if family members are looking for an intermediate location, a country where both can enter without a quarantine obligation. After that, who can go home. In Hungary, of course, ten days of quarantine must be taken into account. Ten days of quarantine can be avoided by having a relative come and go on the road and trust that the authorities will not find you, you can enter with a soft certificate.
The trick is a bit more sophisticated when trying to bring a visit to the quarantine-free travel cases required by law. These are typically business matters. It is not specified what qualifies as a company and what does not. It could be a general London gathering if the relative is an external member of the bt family. Therefore, it is questionable whether it is worth establishing a limited liability company. It costs almost as much as a pcr test.
The truth is that those who would not travel for pleasure are waiting more and more desperately for the border to end. And airlines are trying to keep traffic to a minimum with unprecedented promotions. This is because the low-cost commercial model costs more when the machine is on the ground.
(Cover Image: Tamás Kaszás / Index)
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