London falls to bottom of table for European flight bookings

‘Travel restrictions and quarantines have continued to strangle demand for flights to and from London’

LONDON has fallen to the bottom of the top 10 most booked European cities, as border restrictions and UK quarantine regulations choke travel.

In the first half of June last year the capital was the most heavily booked city in Europe, followed by Paris and Rome, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

By contrast, Lisbon – which was placed ninth in last year’s table – jumped to the top after introducing extra hygiene and safety protocols for tourists at the earliest opportunity.

It comes as the Portuguese government attempts to persuade the UK not to exclude it from its air bridges plan which would lift the requirement for returning British holidaymakers to self-isolate for 14 days.

Portugal has been excluded from the UK’S draft list of more than 50 countries earmarked for air bridges following a surge in coronavirus cases in and around the capital, Lisbon.

Pedro Siza Vieira, Portugal’s economy minister, said: “It makes no sense to be discriminated against in relation to other destinations within Europe which have higher incidence levels.”

New tickets issued for future international travel to the EU dropped by 84.4 per cent in the first half of June against the same period in 2019, although this was up from a 94.5 per cent fall in May

By contrast, bookings to the UK plunged by 96.7 per cent in the first half of June, almost unchanged from the 97.2 per cent collapse in May.

Gloria Guevara, president of the WTTC, said: “Travel restrictions and quarantines have continued to quash air travel and strangle demand for travel to and from London causing it to fall to the bottom of the league.”