Coronavirus: British Airways and Easyjet among airlines grounding 95 Scottish flights a week

More than 40 weekly flights on Italian routes from Edinburgh and Glasgow have been halted by airlines following the country's Covid-19 virus lockdown.

A further 40 will removed by British Airways from its Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen to London routes by the end of next week.

Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines and SAS have also announced cuts from Scotland.

Easyjet, Jet2 and Ryanair said their Italian flights would be halted between Edinburgh and Bergamo, Bologna, Milan, Naples, Pisa, Rome, Treviso, Turin, Venice and Verona.

Jet2 has halted six routes from Edinburgh and Glasgow

Some destinations are served by Easyjet and Jet2.

The airlines' flights between Glasgow and Naples, Rome and Venice will also be stopped.

Some Prestwick to Pisa and Rome flights next month will be affected too.

The moves follow the Italian government last night severely restricting travel across the whole country.

Meantime, Brussels Airlines will halve flights between Edinburgh and the Belgian capital from 12 to seven from Sunday and six from Sunday 22 March.

Lufthansa has cut one of its 12 Edinburgh-Frankfurt flights a week and one of three services a week between Edinburgh and Munich.

SAS will remove one of its six weekly Aberdeen-Copenhagen flights from Sunday and has reduced its six weekly Aberdeen-Oslo flights, which will shrink to four from Sunday.

BA is to cut 13 of its 65 flights a week between Edinburgh and Heathrow - Scotland's busiest air route - by Sunday 22 March.

Seven will be removed from Glasgow's 60 weekly flights and eight of Aberdeen's 47.

BA's London City routes will lose six of its 56 weekly flights from Edinburgh and six from Glasgow.

Trade body Airports Council International today warned the impact of the virus on aviation would be "pronounced".

It predicted European airports would be "significantly impacted by reductions in traffic" and suffer the second greatest impact after those in Asia.

A spokeswoman for Easyjet, Scotland's largest airline, said: “Following restrictions implemented by the Italian authorities, we are in the process of cancelling all of scheduled flights touching Italy between today and Friday 3 April 2020.

Passengers contacted

We will be operating some rescue flights in the coming days.

"We are advising affected customers of their options by email and text message, which includes the option of re-booking or requesting a refund.

“We will be operating rescue flights for passengers wishing to travel for essential, work, health or repatriation reasons to and from Italy."

Ryanair said all its flights to Italy would be halted between midnight on Friday midnight on Wednesday 8 April.

Its spokeswoman said: "All affected passengers have received email notices today informing them of these flight cancellations.

Free move

"Passengers looking for repatriation can obtain a free move to an earlier Ryanair flight operating up until midnight on Friday.

"Affected passengers will be able to choose between a full refund or a travel credit that can be redeemed on Ryanair flights in the next 12 months."

"As such, we have cancelled all flights to Italy (Rome, Naples, Pisa, Turin, Venice and Verona) between now and 26 April.

"We are contacting customers who are due to travel to Italy to advise them of their options, and we are also contacting customers who are currently in Italy, to arrange to fly them back to the UK."