By Ian McMurtry
Holiday Airlines Drop Spain After UK’s New COVID-19 Rules
Jet2 has followed the recent surge in coronavirus cases by removing the Iberian Peninsula from its route map for the time being. This comes after the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced that only essential travelers should take the journey to Spain as the country fights yet another spike in virus cases. Furthermore, travelers from Spain to the island nation will need to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.
The airline announced the suspension of service by saying that the situation was “extremely fast moving” and that updates would be given as the situation as the Iberian country’s path continued to change. The airline will reevaluate flights to Spain after a three-week hiatus, with mid-August being the earliest return.
Of the service suspensions, cities losing flights include Costa de Almeria, Alicante, Malaga and Murcia in Spain and Faro, Portugal. The airline has also suspended and canceled hotel and holiday packages sold through their Jet2Holidays campaign. The airline had hoped to make these an exception to the British rule but caved and followed its home nation’s requests.
CUSTOMER UPDATE – 27.07.2020 pic.twitter.com/TZ3MsuoyF8
— Jet2tweets (@jet2tweets) July 27, 2020
In a press release, the airline stressed the fluid nature of the situation, saying, “for customers who are due to travel to mainland Spain from Aug. 17 onwards, we will provide additional updates once we receive further information from the government. We urge the government to provide clarity, so that we can keep our all-important customers up to date and informed.”
The airline also said that flights to non-mainland destinations such as the Canary Islands would continue on as planned, but then backtracked hours later and dropped those routes as well. Those who are inconvenienced by suspensions will be contacted by the airline to discuss credit notes and full cash refunds for the unused trip. Furthermore, those who find themselves in Spain after the press release went out will be contacted to plan out the individual’s return leg with the airline.
Similarly, German holiday airline TUI and Irish low-cost airline RyanAir also canceled flights between the two nations as the outbreak in the country leads to sharp criticism of vacationers from the island nation. The German airline noted that “travel corridors need to be considered” and that the British “government must work with the travel industry as this level of uncertainty and confusion is damaging for business.” The TUI family owns TUI Airways, a British subsidiary with flights between the U.K. and Spain.
As of this writing, easyJet, Wizz Air and British Airways still link the United Kingdom with Spain.
Although Ian McMurtry was never originally an avgeek, he did enjoy watching US Airways aircraft across western Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. He lived along the Pennsylvania Railroad and took a liking to trains but a change of scenery in the mid-2000s saw him shift more of an interest into aviation. He would eventually express this passion by taking flying lessons in mid-Missouri and joining AirlineGeeks in 2013. Now living in Wichita, Kansas, Ian is in college majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in business administration at Wichita State University.
