Airlines including British Airways and EasyJet are selling tickets for flights in May despite health officials warning a global lockdown could last for months.

BA, which is suspending 30,000 cabin crew on 80 percent pay, is selling a range of tickets from May 1, including £32 flights between Gatwick and Bergamo, Italy.

EasyJet is also selling tickets for May 1 departures to virus-stricken Europe at £34.99 despite grounding its entire fleet amid the coronavirus pandemic.

And tour operator Tui is selling package holidays for April 21 onwards, including a £330 per person break to Alicante, according to The Times.

It comes as countries essentially shut down in a bid to slow the spreading infection, closing their borders and grinding their economies to a halt.

The World Health Organization this week confirmed that over a million people worldwide have contracted the Wuhan coronavirus.

The news of the airlines selling tickets comes as Heathrow Airport sparked fury after announcing it will keep one of its runways open amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Furious passengers returning to the UK bemoaned the lack of checks and advice upon landing as the spread of the killer bug – that has infected more than one million and killed 53,000 – intensifies.

The London hub will operate its landings and takeoffs from one strip from Monday April 6 to ‘increase resilience and safety for staff, passengers and cargo’.

The airport has two runways and will alternate which one they keep open on a weekly basis.

Home Secretary Priti Patel last month called for the UK borders to be closed to stop people arriving from coronavirus hotspots to prevent its spread.

A spokesperson for EasyJet said: ‘At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights and we are evaluating continuously based on changing regulations and customer demand.

‘Whilst our crew are furloughed for two months we remain ready to operate within that timeframe if we are able to do so.

‘We have an ongoing rolling cancellation programme in place and are working through these having taken April off sale.’

A Tui spokesperson said: ‘As the advice against all but essential travel is currently in place until 16 April, all holidays departing after this date are still available to book and planned to operate. Should the advice be extended, we will proactively contact affected customers to discuss their options and take holidays off sale.’

The UK’s largely-service economy has been trashed by the coronavirus panic, with British air travel plummeting by nearly 90 percent compared to last year.

Only 832 flights were handled in UK airspace on April 2 compared to 7,240 which were handled on the equivalent flying day last year, the Nats said.

Read full originally published story at dailymail.co.uk