COVID-19: Government extends ban on flights to and from the EU until June 15 – News

The flight ban “takes effect from 00:00 on May 18, 2020 and until 00:00 on June 15,” specifies the executive, in a joint order published on Wednesday in a supplement to the Diário da República, which extends a ban already in force but which ended next week.

“In view of the assessment of the epidemiological situation in Portugal and the European Union and the measures proposed by the European Commission, it is important to guarantee internal security through appropriate measures that contain the possible lines of contagion, imposing the extension of the aforementioned interdiction, within a framework of pandemic prevention and containment also through the establishment of air traffic restrictions “, explains the Government in the dispatch.

Nevertheless, it maintains the need to provide for exceptions to such restrictions, to countries associated with the Schengen Area (Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland), and to Portuguese-speaking countries, but from Brazil, however, it should be noted that “only flights from and to São Paulo and to and from Rio de Janeiro.

Other exceptions to the ban on air traffic are the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Venezuela, Canada and South Africa, “given the presence of important Portuguese communities”, explains the Government.

Another qualification of the diploma, which excludes the ban, are flights “intended to allow national citizens or the holders of a residence permit in Portugal to return to Portugal, and also flights intended to” allow foreign citizens to return to their respective countries ” that are in Portugal, but provided that such flights are promoted by the competent authorities of such countries, subject to prior request and agreement, and in compliance with the principle of reciprocity.

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