Heathrow: No to 8 India flights

Ahead of ‘red list’ travel ban from today

London, April 22: Heathrow Airport in London, the UK's largest and busiest airport, has declined requests from at least four international aircraft carriers to land eight extra flights from India on Thursday, ahead of the Coronavirus pandemic "red list" travel ban which comes into force from Friday.

The airport said the decision to decline requests for additional flights was taken to ensure that the existing pressures on the border are not "exacerbated", resulting in long queues and crowds at passport control on arrival. India's addition to the travel "red list" was announced in the House of Commons earlier this week amid 103 cases recorded in the UK of a new variant of Coronavirus first detected in India.

Health

Secretary

Matt

Hancock told MPs that the decision had been made after studying the data and on a “precautionary basis”. "That means that anyone who is not a UK or Irish resident or a British citizen cannot enter the UK if they have been in India in the previous 10 days. UK and Irish residents and British citizens who have been in India in the 10 days before their arrival will need to complete hotel quarantine for 10 days from the time of arrival,” said Hancock.

It has since triggered considerable confusion and panic as hundreds of Indian students and other UK-based British Indians scramble for return flights ahead of the Friday deadline.

London-based familyowned travel agency, Tickets to India, is among the agents who have been working round the clock to try and sort out charter flights to carry Indian-origin passengers back to the UK. "Hundreds of British nationals are still requesting seats but there is very little time to arrange a second charter before Friday," said the company, which was working on getting clearance for one Qatar Airways A350 to bring 300 passengers back before the cut-off time (4am local time) on Friday.

ANYONE WHO is not a UK or Irish resident or a British citizen cannot enter the UK if they have been in India in the previous 10 days.

MATT HANCOCK, Health Secretary