Airlines demand quarantine exemption from European hub airports

Airlines flying to the UK are demanding that key overseas hubs be granted exemption from British quarantine measures.

At present anyone arriving in the UK via a hub airport that is in a “quarantine country” must self-isolate for two weeks.

Spending a couple of hours in a key transit location such as Paris CDG, Frankfurt or Amsterdam airport makes the traveller liable to UK quarantine.

The effect is to render much of the government’s so-called “travel corridors” list meaningless – because so many destinations cannot be reached by a non-quarantine airport.

For example, British holidaymakers in the Dutch and French Caribbean must travel home through Amsterdam and Paris respectively.

Just two countries in Africa – Namibia and Rwanda – are on the travel corridors list, but quarantine-free travel is impossible from either of them.

Passengers from Namibia must change planes in another African country, while the Rwandair flight from Kigali to London Heathrow touches down in Brussels. While no new travellers join the plane, a pilot is required to leave the aircraft in the Belgian capital to conduct a “walk around” check – meaning every passenger on board must quarantine.

Dozens of Pacific and Atlantic islands, as well as Uruguay, are similarly subject to what the International Air Transport Association (Iata) calls an effective travel ban.

Even the inclusion of five Greek islands – Corfu, Crete, Kos, Rhodes and Zante – is meaningless as, in winter, they can be accessed only through Athens.

Dale Keller, chief executive of the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK, said: “There is no measurable increase in risk posed by a passenger travelling from a travel corridor country via a secure airside transit at a non-exempt country hub airport, than travelling via any other hub airport in an exempt country.”

Writing in Business Travel News, Mr Keller said foreign airlines transiting key hubs “deliver an incredibly diverse global connectivity from the UK regions and major hubs, drive the vital inbound market via the strength of their overseas networks, and provide choice and competition benefiting UK consumers”.

A recent IATA Connectivity Index Measure report showed that London fell from first to eighth place in terms of flight connections in the year to September 2020. Shanghai is now the top city worldwide.

Willie Walsh, the director general-designate for IATA, said: “The virus did not stop our customers boarding our aircraft.

“They have been denied the freedom we provide, not by a virus, but by a disjointed political response and the restrictions put in place by certain governments who have failed to adapt and to adopt the sensible measures that would have allowed almost normal air services to continue.”

Mr Keller said: “Coming out of this crisis, the global economic race will likely be won by those countries that can most quickly restore their air connectivity and global trade.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “The government has made consistently clear it will take decisive action if necessary to contain the virus, including removing countries from the travel corridors list rapidly if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.

“Throughout the outbreak, all our decisions have been based on the best scientific evidence. Any emerging evidence is continually monitored and considered in the government’s policy making.”

The UK is to introduce a so-called “test-to-release” scheme on 15 December, allowing quarantine to be cut for travellers who get a negative result from a Covid-19 test five days after leaving a quarantine country.