British Airways flights to Ebola-hit countries still on hold

There has not been any change to British Airways’ decision to suspend direct flights to Sierra Leone since the outbreak of the Ebola virus in the country last year, the British Parliament was told on Monday.

Nick Harvey, a Liberal Democrat MP, had asked the Secretary of State for Transport what “recent discussions he has had with British Airways on the resumption of direct flights to Sierra Leone and Liberia”.

Robert Goodwill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Transport replied: “There have been no discussions with British Airways about the resumption of direct scheduled services. Since British Airways decided to suspend their operations, they have given us no indication of an intention to resume flights to Sierra Leone.

“Should the situation change sufficiently for the UK government to become content for direct scheduled services to Ebola-affected countries to resume, it would then be for individual airlines to judge whether it is viable to start services, subject to them requesting the appropriate operating permissions from the relevant authorities.”

Before the suspension, BA used to fly direct to Freetown and then on to Monrovia.