On Wednesday Air India announced the cancellation of flights between India and the UK from April 24 to April 30. The announcement comes after Britain placed India on its Covid-19 travel ‘red list’.
This essentially means that all arrivals from India to the United Kingdom will be banned. However, British national flying from India will be allowed to return. Such passengers would need to quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days. The compulsory hotel quarantine is mandatory for all travellers in the UK.
There are 40 countries on UK’s red list and India was added to the same after 103 cases of the so-called Indian variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, were detected in the UK.
“Passengers who were to travel between India & UK may note that in view of recent restrictions announced by the UK, flights from/to the UK stand cancelled from 24th to 30th April 2021. Further updates regarding rescheduling & refunds will be informed shortly,” stated Air India.
UK’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the move on Monday, April 20, in the House of Commons. He added that 103 cases of the Indian variant were identified in the UK, of which the “vast majority have links to international travel”.
He also added that samples of that variant have been analysed to see if the new variant has any “concerning characteristics”, such as greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines.
Passengers who were to travel between India & UK may note that in view of recent restrictions announced by the UK, flights from/to the UK stand cancelled from 24th to 30th April 2021. Further updates regarding rescheduling, refunds & waivers will be informed shortly: Air India pic.twitter.com/n83tSZXwiS
— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2021
