The country’s Department for Transport announced on Friday that international travellers would need to present the
result from a test, taken no more than 72 hours before their journey date, as part of efforts to
prevent new strains of coronavirus, recently detected in Denmark and South Africa, from entering the UK. However, a spokesperson said this rule would not apply
to Jersey as the Island was
within the Common Travel Area.
Northern Ireland said it had only agreed to the rules ‘in principle’ and was working to solve any policy or operational issues the move could cause.
As of this week, all passengers travelling on Condor between Jersey, France and the UK must provide evidence of a negative result from a PCR or lateral flow test taken 72 hours before departure.
Meanwhile, Guernsey’s government has issued new advice against all but essential travel into the island. The decision was made in response to the rising number of cases in England, where one in 50 people are infected with Covid-19.
Chief Minister John Le Fondré also said last week that, to comply with UK guidelines, Islanders should not visit the UK for anything other than essential travel such as for health or compassionate reasons.
And, as the majority of the UK is now in lockdown, airlines are amending their schedules.
British Airways is now only flying between Jersey and Heathrow on Fridays and Sundays until mid-February. The airline says it is contacting all affected customers who will be eligible for a full refund.
EasyJet has also announced that it will suspend its Gatwick and Liverpool services from Sunday until 1 February, while its Glasgow flights have been stopped until mid-February and its Manchester route cancelled until the end of February.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: ‘Following the UK government’s announcement, we have been required to further reduce our flying programme with the view to maintaining
essential connectivity between key cities in the UK, including domestic services from
London, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Belfast and Scotland, alongside a small
number of international routes. We will be operating flights up to and including 10 January, focused on repatriating any customers who need to return to the UK.’
Blue Islands continues to operate services to Southampton. These are being run commercially and not by the government on a ‘lifeline’ basis.
