London City Airport suspends all flights

From Wednesday evening, all commercial and private flights are suspended until the end of April amid the UK lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.

City Airport said in a statement, “Following the government’s latest instructions in response to the coronavirus outbreak, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to temporarily suspend all commercial and private flights from the airport.

“At this point in this fast moving and unprecedented situation, we think this is the responsible thing to do for the safety and well-being of our staff, passengers and everyone associated with the airport.”

The government has been warned that unless there is “urgent” intervention UK airports could close “within weeks” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Airport Operators Association said, “we are clear that airports will shut down in weeks unless urgent action is taken to support the industry”.

They have called on the government to suspend business rates and all other taxes on UK airports.

Hundreds of police will now start patrolling rail stations to “remind” people only essential journeys are to be made during the three-week lockdown.

Sean O’Callaghan, assistant chief constable at British Transport Police (BTP) said, “We are supporting rail operators and those key workers making their journeys home tonight by deploying 500 officers across the rail network nationally.

The Chinese government have said they are to lift the Hubei province lockdown after two months from midnight, as cases of coronavirus are subsiding.

Those who free of the virus will be allowed to leave, the government said. However, Wuhan which is where coronavirus originated from on 31 December will remain locked down until 8 April.