Greece Bans Flights to/from Thessaloniki Due to Covid-19 Lockdown

Photo source: Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA)

The Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) on Monday announced a temporary ban on international and domestic passenger flights to and from Thessaloniki International Airport “Makedonia”, from 6pm on Tuesday, November 3, until midnight on Tuesday, November 17.

The new aviation directive (NOTAM) was issued following the announcement that Thessaloniki was going into a 14-day local lockdown due to a sharp rise in coronavirus (Covid-19) cases.

According to the directive, only flights for essential travel will be allowed at Thessaloniki’s airport. “This includes flights for health reasons, for business purposes, for objective family reasons and for people in need of international protection,” the NOTAM says.

Exempt from the flight restrictions at Thessaloniki’s airport are Hellenic national healthcare system flights, repatriation flights, sanitary flights, humanitarian flights, military flights, cargo flights, fire fighting flights, frontex flights, technical landing flights (where passengers do not disembark) and ferry flights (return of with crew without passengers).

Serres

The HCAA also announced that the flight restrictions recently imposed on the two light aircraft landing fields in Serres – Hortero and Emmanuel Pappas – will be extended until November 17. Serres is also going into a two-week lockdown due to a rise in Covid-19 cases.

Ioannina, Kastoria and Kozani

Moreover, another aviation directive by the HCAA on Monday said that the flight restrictions for the regional airports of Ioannina, Kastoria and Kozani will be lifted at 6am on Tuesday, November 3.