Poland reinstates flights to Schengen zone from Sept 30

All air connections with countries belonging to the EU's passport-free Schengen zone will be reinstated from September 30, but the air travel ban will apply to 29 other countries for the following two weeks, according to Monday's government regulation.

Flight bans will apply to countries where a 14-day cumulative Covid-19 infection rate exceeds 90 per 100,000 inhabitants, the government press service, CIR, announced.

The measure will not apply to member states of the European Union, the European Economic Area and the Schengen Zone, or to Ukraine.

A relevant draft regulation was sent to the government on Friday.

The new regulation means that Poles will again be able to fly to Spain, after a similar ban was lifted from flights to France, which introduced obligatory coronavirus tests for incoming passengers.

Despite the rising infection count across Europe, the flights are expected to have a limited effect on the epidemic situation in Poland, as October is regarded as a low season in tourism, Deputy Infrastructure Minister Marcin Horala was quoted as saying in an Infrastructure Ministry statement on Friday.

"Additionally, we are maintaining a very strict epidemic security regime at all Polish airports. Therefore, we can safely continue to gradually lift the flight bans," Horala also said.

Other countries that introduce the requirement of obligatory coronavirus tests for incoming passengers may also be removed from the restricted list, Horala added.

The 29 restricted countries include Brazil, Israel, India and the United States.