London Heathrow Airport has turned down airline requests to operate extra repatriation flights from India before the country is added to the UK travel red list.
Heathrow reportedly refused to offer more flights because of concerns about crowded immigration queues at passport control.
Four carriers had requested to operate a total of eight extra flights from India. Currently, 30 flights a week are being operated between the UK and India.
However, the Civil Aviation Authority didn’t name the airline. Air India, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Vistara operate scheduled flights between the UK and India.
The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that it received applications for charter flight permits from India to the UK, but these had been declined or withdrawn as they did not meet the qualifying criteria.
“We are in a global health pandemic; people should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary. Every essential check helps avoid the risk of importing dangerous variants of coronavirus, which could put our vaccine rollout at risk,” said a government spokesperson.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled a state visit to India, which had been due to take place on 26t April. The same day the government issued a fresh advisory putting India on their travel red list.