It appears that airlines are eyeing the week around May 17 as the time to try and launch some schedules again. Turkish, earlier this week, canceled all international flights until May 20. Now, Austrian Airlines has extended their cancellation schedule until May 17.
No Austrian Airlines Flights Until At Least May 17
Link: Austrian Airlines Coronavirus Page
While their commercial flights have all be canceled, Austrian is running daily medical supply flights to China as well as continuing to run repatriation flights around the world.
But, as for actual passenger flights, Austrian Airlines is now looking at May 17 as the day they will restart their flights. I am actually kind of appreciative of airlines pushing out their schedule cancellations a full month. Countries have put various degrees of lockdown in place and airlines having canceled flights at this point is a good thing to cut down on the amount of people traveling between countries.
Also, it is good so people are not facing constant cancellations with each extension of canceled flights. Now, you can plan on buying flights post-May 17 with Austrian Airlines. For flights to the US, I would think the best bet for flights that may start up first would be ones to Washington, DC (IAD). New York is still having a lot of problems and is entering a new phase of lockdown until May 15. Flights to DC may figure that this would be one of the first US destinations that Austrian would fly to post schedule resumption.
Visit the link above to see the current rules in place for cancellations, changes, and vouchers available.
