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CORONAVIRUS UPDATES FOR SVALBARD FOR SATURDAY: Government paying for daily flights to Svalbard, custom “Isbjörnar” sketches, taco truck reopens w/ delivery and more

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This story will be updated throughout the day. 

Norway’s government is paying airlines up to one billion krone to continue 684 flights per week on 23 routes “considered critical to society to maintain operations,” including daily service between Svalbard and the mainland, as carriers are slashing schedules and facing near-term bankruptcy due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Aircraft is an important part of the transportation in an area with many remote locations like Norway,” Minister of Transportation said in a prepared statement.

Daily flights between Oslo and Svalbard, some with stopovers in Tromsø, by Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air are being subsidized on an alternating-day carrier basis.

Svalbard remains free of officially diagnosed Coronavirus cases, and no new restrictions or other emergency developments were reported, as of 2 p.m. Saturday.

Numerous businesses, organizations are continuing to offer special purchases/activities, as well as reduce or cease operations at least temporarily.

• Haakon Sandvik at 78 Grader Taxfree is offering custom Isbjörnar drawings from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday costing from 280 kroner for mat frames provided by the adjacent  Barbara Foto og Ramme,

The Mexican food truck Tio Moncho’s is operating again with menu of daily changing “specials” in lieu of the normal menu. All food is being provided cold for reheating at home, with delivery available if pickup isn’t desired/possible. Orders today are being taken from 4-8 p.m. See Facebook page or send text message to 9399 7177 for orders.

Frost Spitsbergen is offering 20 percent off all shoes and clothes.

• Russian fishing vessels, including those in Svalbard, are at risk of stopping as Norwegian ports are practically closed for crew changes, according to The Independent Barents Observer. The news site reports 90 percent of Russia’s fisheries in European Arctic waters are done by 80 vessels bought or repaired abroad. For customs reasons, they can’t make port calls to Murmansk.

 

 

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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