airBaltic is resuming flights to London from tomorrow. The move comes despite the UK's mandatory 14-day quarantine not yet being lifted. airBaltic's CEO, Martin Gauss, previously told Simple Flying in an exclusive interview that the airline doesn't see any impact on demand caused by the current regulations.

In late March, airBaltic became the first airline to cancel all flights as a result of the current crisis affecting the aviation industry. The airline became the first of many to take such action. Since this date, the Baltic airline has resumed flights but is yet to return to London from any of its hubs.

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Flights resume tomorrow

airBaltic will finally resume its flights to London from tomorrow. The airline operates three routes to London, all to London Gatwick. These run from the airline's three hubs, Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius. The flight from Riga to London Gatwick is one of airBaltic's flagship routes. This is the first route to resume tomorrow.

airBaltic will also begin flying to Gatwick from Vilnius tomorrow. However, this won't be a route restart, as it will instead be a route inauguration. Finally, flights from Tallinn to Gatwick will resume from Saturday, July 4th.

Sufficient demand exists

Earlier this month, Simple Flying caught up with airBaltic's CEO, Martin Gauss. While we discussed many things from whether masks will become the new normal, to why airline bailouts are like a wartime recovery. However, we also discussed the UK's quarantine regulations.

Speaking to Simple Flying exclusively on the topic of the quarantine, Gauss said,

"We would have flown to London already four weeks ago… People would just fly and do the quarantine… I think if somebody hasn’t been in the UK for four months and who is from the Baltics and needs to go because the family, he’s gonna stay 14 days in quarantine."

What's happening with the UK's quarantine?

The United Kingdom was expected to announce the end of its blanket 14-day quarantine scheme yesterday. However, the anticipated talk regarding changes is yet to be held by the UK Government.

According to the I newspaper, the UK government is now expected to release a list of countries tomorrow. This will list where travelers will be able to fly from without quarantining for 14-day upon arrival in the UK. It is expected that the first "air bridges" between countries will be in place from as soon as Saturday, July 4th. This would allow the UK aviation industry to start to recover finally.

A group of three United Kingdom airlines has launched a legal appeal against the United Kingdom's quarantine regulations. However, it was previously revealed that this wouldn't be heard until early July, potentially rendering it pointless.

Are you pleased to see airBaltic's Airbus A220-300s back in London? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!