Escape Portugal: Huge queues form at Faro airport as holidaymakers scramble to get back to the UK

188

View
comments

Thousands of British holidaymakers in Portugal formed huge queues which snaked through Faro Airport as they scramble to get on the last flights back to the UK before quarantine rules change at 4am tomorrow.

Travellers were seen sitting on baggage in the departures lounge, while others have described ‘chaotic’ scenes at the airport in the Algarve – including boarding flights with just minutes to spare.

Some tourists have revealed they will have to quarantine at home for 10 days when they get back to the UK because they cannot book PCR tests amid a surge in demand. Others said they waited hours at a testing site in the airport car park as other sites in the region were closed or dealing with a backlog.  

At passport check in Heathrow Airport, arrivals from green and amber countries mingled in long queues while Border Force officials checked their Covid documentation and passports.  

Paul Charles, chief executive of the PC Agency, said passengers were ‘resigned and thinking why were they having to mix with passengers from countries ranked differently on the traffic light system’. 

He told MailOnline: ‘Why is it safe for amber and green passengers to mix if amber is such a problem to ministers? It all points to the truth that government policy is a shambles and that they have made a complete mess of what should have been a very simple traffic light system.’ 

Cabinet ministers destroyed the holiday plans of millions of families after abruptly downgrading Portugal from green to amber status on its travel list, citing fears over the Nepal variant – even though just one case of the strain was detected in Portugal when the decision was announced on Thursday. 

Passengers have until 4am tomorrow to return to the UK or quarantine for 10 days, and must have proof of a negative PCR test taken no more than three days before their departure or face a £500. However, testing centres in Portugal were reportedly overwhelmed by the spike in demand.

There are an estimated 112,000 Britons currently in Portugal and airlines have been laying on extra flights or larger aircraft to get people home. Some 100 flights departed Faro on Saturday and there were lengthy queues snaking around the building of passengers trying to leave yesterday.

Speaking to the BBC this morning, vaccine centre volunteer Angela Mantana said she got news of the sudden decision just one day after getting to Portugal and now has to quarantine for 10 days at home because she was unable to get PCR tests or ‘suitable’ flights back to the East Midlands. It means she cannot provide jabs at her local centre, or provide her aunt – who is shielding – her daily medication. 

Asked how difficult it has been to get back to the UK, she said: ‘It’s almost been impossible. We arrived on the Wednesday, on the Thursday we were notified it had gone to amber and immediately we started looking for flights and tests. There were no tests available and the flights weren’t suitable to get us back to the East Midlands.

‘We got our original test booked in, but because other people had obviously been trying there was nothing available. It leaves us that we’ve got to finish the holiday and then go into quarantine when we come back. 

‘The implications are we are volunteers at a vaccine centre and on the Friday when we return we were supposed to be going in so we’ve had to let those people down. Equally I shield an auntie who has severe medical conditions who I see on a daily basis to apply medication and I’m not going to be able to do that.

‘We can joke about it, but you arrive one day and the next day we’re planning to get home.’ 

Another British traveller, Mike Indian described ‘chaotic’ scenes at Faro Airport and having to push past other travellers after officials told him he would need to run to make his flight to London Luton. He told Radio 4’s Today programme he managed to board the plane with just five minutes to spare. 

Some 20,000 passengers departing from Faro at the weekend had to pay exorbitant prices to buy PCR tests so they can fly back from Portugal ahead of the 10-day quarantine deadline.  

With PCR tests costing £125 each, a family-of-four can expect to fork out £1,000 for tests for which they have not budgeted – meaning the Government’s sudden decision is putting hundreds of people out of pocket. 

And testing labs are facing an ‘overwhelming’ surge in demand for PCR testing which is causing holidaymakers to miss flights as test results are delayed or lost. According to Ross Tomkins, managing director of PCR test provider Salutaris People, testing capacity is on the ‘verge of collapse’.

‘It is clear to see that the laboratories are overwhelmed with the sheer volume of testing kits being sent in by airline passengers eager to get away on holiday,’ he said. ‘As a result of this, the labs are losing test kits or mixing up test results, while others are being delayed and a large percentage are coming back with ‘unclears.’ 

‘Not only is this frustrating for airline passengers, but it’s also costly having to take secondary testing. It is also creating chaos and anxiety for airline passengers when all they want to do is jump on a plane and take a holiday. This is only going to get worse, rather than better, and will lead to many disappointed holidaymakers and airline passengers, whose plans could be seriously affected.’  

Yet official data now shows that just 1.5 per cent of British travellers tested positive for coronavirus over two weeks in a sample – just three positive cases spotted out of 200 people coming from Portugal in mid-May. 

The travel industry reacted with fury to the JBC data last night, saying it was proof of the very low risk posed by people arriving from Portugal and that the country should have stayed green.

In other coronavirus developments:

• Cabinet ministers yesterday admitted they are ‘absolutely open’ to delaying lockdown easing on June 21;
• But furious Tory backbenchers urged the Government not to ‘move the goalposts’ and commit to roadmap;
• NHS experts said hospital patients with Covid-19 are young, get less sick and go home sooner;
• Young people in London and Scotland queued for ‘miles’ to get jabs as the NHS began vaccinating over-18s;
• Concerns were raised after ‘blank’ NHS Covid vaccine cards were spotted being sold on eBay for over £50;
• Tony Blair called for vaccinated Britons to be released from restrictions and said it is ‘time to distinguish for the purposes of freedom’ between those who have been jabbed and those who have not;
• The UK recorded 5,341 cases yesterday, rising 65 per cent in a week, while deaths fell again to four.

Tourists wanting to beat the deadline are being hit by a combination of many flights being sold out, and the handful of available seats being sold at inflated prices.

Ryanair is charging £285 for a flight from Faro to Bournemouth on Monday, but just £17 on Wednesday. EasyJet flights from Faro to Gatwick are £227 on Monday and £53 on Tuesday. 

The Government’s sudden decision to downgrade Portugal to amber instantly wiped £2billion off the value of airlines, while travel industry chiefs warned that it risked creating a jobs bloodbath and wrecking the already devastated sector. 

Figures compiled by the all-party Future of Aviation group of MPs projected that the cost to the economy could be as much as £11.5billion in outbound travel alone if the current restrictions remain through the next three months. 

British Airways owner IAG, easyJet, Ryanair, TUI, Wizz Air and engine maker Rolls-Royce all suffered heavy falls as news spread that no countries would be added to the green list. And package holiday giant Jet2 cancelled all foreign holidays until July 1 – three days after the next review of the green list is due.  

The Department for Transport said the situation in the country ‘required swift action to protect the gains made with the vaccine rollout’.

It stated that the positivity rate for coronavirus tests in Portugal had nearly doubled since the travel lists were first created four weeks earlier.

The DfT added that 68 cases of the Indian mutation, which is also known as the Delta variant, have been identified in Portugal. But separate Test and Trace figures show just three out of 200 arrivals from Portugal tested positive between May 6 and May 19. 

Genetic epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector, of King’s College London, slammed ministers and said there is more risk travelling from London to Manchester than going on holiday to Portugal. 

He said: ‘We seem to be slightly more obsessed with these variants than any other country and I think this is probably because we’re leading the world in our genetics in terms of us understanding what these variants are doing. But it’s also creating this slight element of panic and fear, because of these potentials of these variants to do something.

‘But I think if we look at the hard data there’s really been hardly any increase in admissions and death rates are really low because this is getting to be a milder disease. We’ve got to get on with this. We’re not going to get to Covid zero so we need to learn to live with this virus, this milder form, even though it is more transmissible.’

Official figures show Bolton has 355.1 cases per 100,000 people, while Manchester has had a rate of 63.1 new cases per 100,000 people in the past week. By comparison, Portugal had a rate of 65.19 per 100,000 people in the last 14 days.  

Prof Spector added: ‘If you travel from London to Manchester at the moment, it’s a much greater risk than going to Portugal, Spain, Italy, France. Are we protecting the Portuguese from problems? Is it that way around? Because, otherwise, I don’t really get it.’ 

Separate figures showed that, between May 18 and 24, the seven-day rolling average of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 of Portugal’s population was 30.2. On May 31, the rate in the UK was 35.9.

Tim Alderslade, of Airlines UK, said last night: ‘We essentially have a pretend traffic light system. They have ignored their own recommendations and led an entire industry down the garden path. It’s clear that many in Government don’t want international travel this summer. They should have the decency to tell us so we and our passengers can plan accordingly.’

Which? Travel editor, Rory Boland said: ‘People understand that the current public health situation will sometimes require changes to the traffic light lists at short notice, but the government needs to be upfront about how the system works so people can make informed decisions about their travel plans.

‘The Government had suggested more notice would be given this summer in moving countries between traffic lights, including the use of a green watchlist, so travellers will be upset that they now face huge bills to try and get home before the quarantine requirements come in.

‘Demand for flights has inevitably soared, and while it’s good to hear airlines are running additional flights to help accommodate this, we cannot see a return of the rip-off fares of last summer when customers trying to get home were held to ransom for huge sums of money.’

Portugal’s downgrading triggered chaos as holidaymakers scrambled to dash home to beat 10-day quarantine rules which kick in at 4am tomorrow. People with bookings to Portugal face the choice of rescheduling for later in the year in the hope it goes green again or seeking refunds.

Seven countries were added to the red list, but no new ones went green. It means that, of the 11 destinations left on the green list, Gibraltar and Iceland are the only ones Britons can realistically visit. Quarantine-free travel is only possible to green countries.

They are also the only ones where ministers say people should go on holiday. The list is reviewed every three weeks, with the next due on June 28.

A Government spokesman said last night: ‘We have taken a cautious approach to our green travel list to protect the country and our vaccination campaign from the threat of Covid-19 variants.’

Portuguese premier Antonio Costa criticised Britain for removing the country from its green list. ‘We can’t have this system of instability and changes every three weeks, he told reporters. ‘It isn’t good for those who plan their holidays, nor for those who have to organise the tourism industry to receive tourists in good conditions.’

He added Portugal was maintaining dialogue with the UK to ‘explain the decision is not justified and also the serious damage it causes to the British and to the Portuguese economy.’ 

Portugal’s tourism chief Luis Araújo also condemned the UK’s decision to remove the country from green travel status and insisted all necessary precautions had been taken to ensure the safety of visitors. ‘We are extremely disappointed to hear that the UK government has made the decision to remove Portugal from the green list,’ he said.

‘We fully maintain and stress unwavering confidence in the safety of the nation and thank the support of all our partners and friends in the UK, especially our trading partners that have been essential in quickly reinstating flight capacity into Portugal.

‘Our country is open and prepared to welcome any tourist and we have taken all the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our visitors and residents.’

It came as more details emerged of the furious Cabinet clash between Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps over the decision.  

Mr Hancock is said to have been the driving force behind ministers’ decision to ignore JBC advice that Malta and a list of other islands should be added to the green list. He is also said to have rejected the idea that Portugal should be put on a ‘watchlist’ rather than immediately turned amber. 

The watchlist option acts as an early warning sign, designed to give people more time to return home before a country goes fully amber if the coronavirus data gets worse.

Mr Hancock was said to have been backed by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and the Home Office, who also opposed Malta being added to the green list. One Whitehall source claimed ministers had a ‘massive barney’. 

Yesterday photos at Faro showed hundreds of families ignoring social distancing as they formed huge queues in the departures lounge. Those arriving at Heathrow Airport said they were ‘pretty angry’ at the sudden decision and accused the Government of flip-flopping over its travel guidance. 

Louisa Chapman-Andrews, who had just returned from Faro with her family, said: ‘Everyone just feels pretty angry, the UK government just can’t make up its mind and that is not fair, that is the overriding feeling. They have got to make up their mind and be responsible to businesses and individuals.’

She added: ‘The Portuguese were very polite and charming but it is very disappointing. There are so many people who are responsible but we have to think about the future and start trying to pick up the pieces.

‘We need to stop hanging on to this panic. We have this amazing vaccination programme and we are crowing about that but what has changed after the programme?’ 

Christina Fonseca, travelling back to the UK with her husband Nuno and their children today, said: ‘In my view there is no reason for this unexpected change to the rules. Everyone was worried and the local shops and bars were now panicking because everyone was leaving.’

Mr Fonseca told MailOnline: ‘We have a place that we rent over there as an AirBnB and we had two cancellations from British people straight away. It is just more of a political statement than anything else.’ 

One holidaymaker who gave just his first name – Gavin – said: ‘We had a lovely holiday in the sun, but the atmosphere changed when the news came out. It seemed ok but the Brits were a bit worried, it was hard to tell.’ 

Another traveller said the sudden decision to demote Portugal to amber would further damage local businesses in the Algarve, which rely greatly on British tourists. 

‘I think it is more the hotels and the Portuguese tourism industry that is not thrilled, they have just got all their staff in place and gone through the first week of hell getting it sorted and then everyone is leaving,’ he told MailOnline.

It comes as Tory MPs reacted with fury last night after Mr Hancock said he was ‘absolutely open’ to delaying so-called ‘Freedom Day’ on June 21 if coronavirus data turned ‘bad’ this week.

The Health Secretary refused to rule out keeping face masks and home working beyond late June, when the Government had hoped to remove all legal limits on social contact.

Mr Hancock said the unlocking could be pushed back if the data called for it, amid suggestions there could be a two-week delay. But his downbeat comments triggered anger among senior backbenchers. 

Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne said ministers were ‘wasting the advantages afforded by the success of vaccinations’. He added: ‘The original mission statement was to save lives by protecting the NHS. We’ve done that.

‘The more it moves the goalposts, the more people will be made redundant.’

Measures including face masks, social distancing and working from home are likely to remain in place past June 21 due to lingering concern over the Indian variant.

The Government has said it will decide on whether or not to extend the current restrictions beyond June 21 a week today. Sources told the Telegraph the decision hinged on the impact of the Indian variant on hospitalisations. 

A source told the newspaper: ‘The scientists are more in favour of a two-week extension and that is certainly one of the options that has been put in the papers for ministers.’

It reported that the Government was concerned over a faster-than expected increase in Covid cases. But sources said the absence of a spike in hospitalisations would reassure ministers when making the decision next week. 

Former Tory Cabinet minister David Jones said last night: ‘Matt Hancock has acknowledged that most people in hospital [with Covid-19] have not been vaccinated. 

‘The answer is therefore to get as many people as possible vaccinated as quickly as possible. It is not to delay the lifting of lockdown, with the attendant damage to people’s mental and physical wellbeing and to the economy.’

Former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers called on the Government to ‘give us as much freedom as possible’ – with priority given to weddings, events and hospitality.

She said that while ‘most people’ could live with face coverings and some travel restrictions, ‘we’ve got to allow the hospitality business to open up again fully’.

Senior Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said there was ‘increasing frustration’ among his colleagues over the restrictions. 

He added: ‘We’ve got to be really, really careful about getting panicked about every variant that comes along until we are absolutely sure there is one that is going to defeat the vaccine.’

The MPs’ warnings were echoed by UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls, who said the ‘ongoing uncertainty’ was causing ‘significant distress’ to the sector, especially as ‘healthcare data does not indicate a need for deviation’.

The evidence ‘demonstrates that the vaccination programme is working and breaking the link between cases and hospitalisations and deaths’, she said.

‘It is crucial that the Government commits to dropping the restrictions on June 21. Any delay in the roadmap would have a devastating effect on an already fragile sector.’ 

While UK cases have been rising in recent weeks, fuelled by the Indian variant, hospital admissions have remained flat. Official data shows that Britons who have received two vaccine doses make up less than 5 per cent of those hospitalised with the new strain. 

And around two-thirds of people attending A&E with the variant do not even need to spend the night in hospital. Another 5,341 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus were recorded in the UK yesterday and a further four deaths were announced, down from six a week earlier.

Mr Hancock was asked yesterday whether the removal of restrictions on June 21 could be postponed if data on the Indian variant worsens. We are absolutely open to doing that if that’s what needs to happen,’ he told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show.

‘We said in the roadmap that June 21 is the date by which we would not take step four before that date and that we would look at the data. That is exactly what we are doing.’

Asked if the wearing of face coverings and work-from-home measures could continue in the long-term, the Health Secretary added: ‘Yes, I wouldn’t rule that out.’

Ministers will assess data this week ahead of an announcement, expected next Monday, on whether to proceed with the unlocking the following week.

Labour yesterday signalled it could support some restrictions remaining in place. 

Education spokesman Kate Green said: ‘If we have to maintain some protective measures beyond June 21, that is what the Government should do, but I think it is really important that it’s a decision taken on the basis of the data.’

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Munira Wilson urged ministers to ‘remain cautious, especially given rising case numbers, and to follow the evidence before making a final decision about opening up’.

Are you flying from Portugal back to the UK today? Email us – jack.wright@mailonline.co.uk. 

Hancock and Gove ‘killed British travel abroad’: Ministers are accused of over-ruling scientists by removing Portugal from ‘green list’ with a few days’ notice and refusing to add ‘safe’ Malta

Matt Hancock was accused of ‘killing British travel abroad’ amid a furious Cabinet row over foreign holidays. 

The Health Secretary and fellow senior minister Michael Gove have been blamed for the decision last week to place Portugal on the amber list as just a few days’ notice.

The move last Thursday, which comes into effect on Tuesday, forced thousands of Britons into a last minute scramble to get home without having to quarantine.

They are said to have over-ruled more hawkish elements int he Cabinet, led by Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, who wanted Portugal put on a ‘watchlist’ that would have given holiday makers more time.

They have also been accused of over-ruling scientific advise from the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) clearing Malta to be added to the green list of quarantine-free travel destinations.

The Mediterranean island has one of the lowest Covid rates in Europe and has been open to UK travellers since June 1. A ministerial source told the Sunday Times there had been a ‘heated’ meeting earlier this week.

‘Ministers were bounced into this at the last minute. Hancock held on to the data until the last minute,’ they said.

Mr Hancock defended himself today, telling Sky that ‘my first duty is to protect the UK population and that does include trying to minimise transmission’ from abroad, though he was not specifically asked about holidays.

And a Whitehall source told MailOnline that the decision on Portugal and Malta was supported by a majority of Cabinet ministers and all the devolved administrations.  

‘JBC said Portugal was borderline and some ministers wanted a watchlist of green countries that might go amber.

‘There were clear reasons to put Malta on the green list but the formal recommendation from the Department of Health was that it should not happen.

‘Hancock doesn’t think anyone should be going abroad on holiday this year. He is killing British travel abroad. If we are going to follow scientific advice to stop people travelling we should be following scientific advice if they say people can travel.’ 

It came as a leading epidemiologist said that Portugal was probably safer than some parts of England. 

Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, told Times Radio: ‘If you travel from London to Manchester at the moment, it’s a much greater risk than going to Portugal, Spain, Italy, France. 

‘Are we protecting the Portuguese from problems? Is it that way around? Because otherwise I don’t really get it. We can’t stop variants coming into this country unless we completely lock down the country. 

‘So I think we just ought to start settling down and dealing with our own outbreaks and not try to have this haphazard travel policy which is causing a lot of fear and confusion.’

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the Government’s traffic light rating system for travel is ‘confusing’ and ‘dangerous’.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she said: ‘I think we’ve got a real, real problem with the travel system that the Government has put in place.

‘We’ve currently got countries on the amber list which the Government is basically urging people not to go to but allowing people to go to with very lax quarantine requirements when they come back.

‘We think the amber list should be scrapped. We think it’s pointless. We think it’s confusing and that confusion is actually dangerous at the moment. It risks unravelling all of the progress that we’ve made.’