UAE-UK flights via Portugal see huge spike as tourists attempt to escape quarantine

Flight bookings from the UAE to the UK via Portugal spiked by 347 percent for the period of May 1–28 compared to the same period in 2019, said aviation analytics firm ForwardKeys.

The average length of stay in Portugal as an interim destination was 22 days.

Portugal was dramatically removed from the UK green list on Thursday but quarantine-free holidays were previously allowed to the popular European holiday spot on May 17 when the UK ban on non-essential travel was lifted.

Similarly, flight UAE-UK flights bookings via Greece – an amber list destination – spiked by 242 percent for the period of May 1–28 compared to the same period in 2019. The average length of stay in Greece as an interim destination was 18 days.

According to Britain’s stringent traffic light system, all red list country arrivals – including those from the UAE – must quarantine in a government-mandated hotel for 10 days.

“It seems that people have decided to travel through green and amber countries to visit the UK,” said Oliver Ponti (pictured below), VP of insights for aviation analytics firm ForwardKeys.

“For the traffic light rules to apply, travellers must quarantine for ten days in the UK, so the data suggests that travellers are following the legal rules but they are simply choosing to be detained on a foreign sunny beach rather than a UK hotel room. If you are going to spend two weeks in detention, it’s better on the beach,” he added.

The UAE will remain on Britain’s travel red list for the foreseeable future, the UK government announced on Thursday, in a blow for the local tourism and business community.

No new countries were added to the UK’s green list while Bahrain, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago and Afghanistan were added to the red list.

John Grant, partner at consultancy firm MIDAS Aviation, said Britain’s decision to move no countries forward against its traffic light system is likely to lead to “even greater frustration among the UK population desperate for holidays.”

“The UK airline industry is fed up of being held to subjective decisions by elected representatives who have no understanding of the industry and the impact of their decision making on people’s lives,” Grant said.

The analyst said the position of the UAE on the red list could only be explained by the potential for connectivity to the Indian Sub-Continent.

“Since the UK Government professes to have world class test, track and trace processes in place that seems an equally strange contradiction that will anger both expatriates and holidaymakers,” he said.

A UK Department for Transport spokesperson told Arabian Business it was in “constant dialogue” with global partners, though the British government would not be drawn on details of any UAE talks.

“We would never comment on the green list as the science is changing daily. The Joint Biosecurity Centre makes suggestions and we look at that every three weeks. The traffic light system is based on science data.”