RAF to the rescue
SIR – In previous emergencies over the years, the RAF has been used to repatriate British nationals.
Why is this not being done now? Surely a rough trip in the back of a Hercules is better than being stranded. MD Plater
Highcliffe, Dorset
SIR – Like British Airways, easyJet has not shone in the current emergency.
My wife and I have a holiday to Italy booked with the airline, departing on April 18. It is obvious that this won’t happen, yet I have heard nothing. According to my online booking, I am still travelling. It is impossible to contact easyJet by phone or email.
I understand that the holiday companies are trying to cajole the Government into letting them give vouchers for cancelled holidays, rather than cash refunds, and I assume easyJet is hoping to do this too. But I’m no longer sure that I want to travel with a company that offers such abysmal customer service – unlike, incidentally, Ryanair, which refunded a cancelled flight booked for May without question and within minutes. Michael Wilton
Birchington, Kent
SIR – Would it not be possible for British Airways, with its huge dormant aircraft capacity, to arrange rescue flights around the globe, in conjunction with our embassies? John Dinley FRCS
Broadstone, Dorset
SIR – The NHS is under pressure like never before, the nation is in lockdown and great sacrifices are being made by everyone to see us through this crisis.
However, thousands of visitors – including from the US, Iran, Italy and China – are still allowed to land daily at our airports. (We, understandably, are not allowed to travel short distances to see family.) It is incomprehensible that there are no health checks on those arriving, and the “advisory” 14-day period of self-isolation for these visitors is unenforceable.
Protecting airlines should not be the priority; protecting citizens should. Give the NHS a chance to fight this disease without adding to its burden. Peter Senior
Cambridge
SIR – I am a British passport holder and, having lived in Australia with my sons, decided to return here.
Now I find that my furniture and other belongings are in lockdown at Southampton docks, and likely to remain there for some time – for which I will probably be charged. Am I the only person suffering from this?
Sheila Wickenden
Lower Assendon, Oxfordshire