HEATHROW, Gatwick and several other UK airports are on an EU list of high risk hotspots and require extra protection for passengers.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has drawn up a fresh list of airports located in affected areas with high risk of transmission of CoViD-19.
The following airports in the UK are said to be high risk and require extra cleaning when they get to their EU destination.
Some of them even require people to take a coronavirus test when they get off the plane at the other end, too.
The list of UK airports in full:
Birmingham
Doncaster Sheffield
East Midlands
Gatwick
Glasgow
Heathrow
Leeds Bradford
Liverpool John Lennon
London City
Luton
Manchester Airport
Newcastle International
Stansted
Greek tourism minister Harry Theoharis said the current restrictions on travellers from most UK airports meant it would be difficult for the majority of holidaymakers from Britain wanting to take a trip to the European country.
Mr Theoharis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today: “For the rest of the airports, testing is mandatory and for a certain amount of days you wait for the test results.
“If it is a negative result, then it is effectively a self-imposed quarantine of seven days but you can go ahead to your destination.
“If, however, it is a positive result then it is a supervised quarantine for longer than seven days.”
He added: “It does mean that there is an inconvenience in the first few days.
“That’s why this is not going to be for the masses. It has to mean you have more time.”
Greece previously released a list of 29 countries which would be welcome to enter the country from June 15 – which didn’t include the UK.
Greece hotels and luxury resorts are slashing their prices ahead of Brits returning this year to encourage holidaymakers to visit, with some offering half-price stays.
Some tour operators have dropped their package holiday prices by as much as 65 per cent.
In a dramatic U-turn, the country then confirmed that the UK could be included but would face the coronavirus tests upon landing.
The EU list of high risk airports also includes:
- All airports in Belgium
- French airports in the Ile-de-France region
- All Italian airports in Romagna, Lombardy, Piemonte, Veneto regions
- Amsterdam Shiphol, Eindhoven Airport Maastricht Aachen Airport and Rotterdam The Hague Airport in The Netherlands
- Poland Katowice Airport (EPKT)
- All airports in the Stockholm region of Sweden
- Madrid, Castile and Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia in Spain
- And two in Portugal – Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport and Lisbon Portela Airport
And dozens of countries outside of the EU are also on a separate list of high risk countries.
Yesterday Priti Patel outlined new measures to quarantine anyone coming into the country for 14 days – whether they are sick or not.
And it means that any Brits who go on holiday will have to isolate for two weeks when they return, too.
But fuming Tory MPs and aviation leaders said it would destroy the sector, and demanded other solutions to the problem.
Some have suggested people could get fast tests done at airports, rather than have to isolate for two weeks.
But the Home Secretary gave hope for Brits to get on holidays in the future – saying the measures would only be “temporary” and were looked at every three weeks.
She is also looking into air bridges with other countries – meaning people could travel in “corridors” between other places with low infection rates.
However, as the UK keeps recording some of the highest death numbers in Europe right now, ministers are unsure when that will be.
