Greece Loosens Some of Its Aviation Restrictions

Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority issued a new statement on Sunday announcing the new rules regarding the nation’s aviation restrictions due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The aviation restrictions that are lifted

More specifically, the Aviation Authority said that the weekly limit of arrivals from Russia will rise on Monday from 500 to 4,000 passengers per week.

The Authority also announced that restrictions previously imposed on arrivals from Turkey, North Macedonia, and Albania are now lifted.

The restrictions that continue to be in effect

At the same time, the Greek Aviation Authority said that both domestic and international flights are banned with only exceptions for those who need to travel for health, professional, or family reasons.

Additionally, the ban on arrivals of non-EU citizens is being extended at least until April 5, 2021.

The citizens of only ten countries are exempt from this non-EU ban.

These countries are the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Rwanda, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation, and Israel.

The restrictions on the country’s domestic flights are extended until March 29.

Additionally, all passengers entering Greece from any foreign country, including the Member States of the European Union, are subject to mandatory precautionary restrictions at home or at the place of temporary residence, for at least seven days.

On top of the seven-day quarantine, passengers will be randomly tested upon their arrival, and are required to have a negative test before they fly to Greece. The test has to be conducted at a maximum of 72 hours before their arrival.

It is noted that Greece will start offering Coronavirus self-testing kits next month to the entire population of the country.

This comes as the latest addition to a series of measures that aim to curve the rising coronavirus infections in the country.

This was announced by the Greek government on Saturday afternoon.