UAE remains on UK’s travel red list, Bahrain added as Covid concerns rise

In an unprecedented move, no new countries were added to the UK’s green list and Portugal – a former green list destination – was relegated to Britain’s red list.

The announcement means arrivals from the UAE are required to stay in a government-mandated hotel for 10 days at a cost of £1,750 per adult, severely hampering cross-border tourism and commerce links.

Bahrain, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago and Afghanistan were also added to the red list.

The UK’s government’s cautious approach is likely being fuelled by the country’s spiking Covid rates.

The number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England has risen by 22 percent, reaching the highest level in six weeks.

According to the latest Test and Trace figures, a total of 17,162 people tested positive in the country at least once in the week to May 26.

Experts continue to be dismayed by the UK government’s resistance to placing the UAE on its quarantine-free list despite the Emirates currently having the world’s highest vaccination rate.

The UAE Ambassador to the UK, Mansoor Abulhoul, said: “It is disappointing to see that the UAE has remained on the UK’s red travel list. We have best-in-class health and safety infrastructure to protect visitors and residents.

“This includes rapid testing, social distancing and sanitisation procedures at our airports, as well as Emirates and Etihad airlines fully sanitising all planes. Additionally, the UAE is among the top countries in the world for both vaccination rate and its testing programme.

“We have strict controls to guard against troubling variants and have bespoke travel arrangements with several countries for vaccinated passengers, including Greece and Italy, and we look forward to negotiating similar solutions with other countries.”

As of June 2, the UAE had administered 13.1 million vaccine doses, taking the rate of doses to 133.7 per 100 people.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said he remains “mystified” that the UAE remains on the no-fly zone.

In a recent interview with Arabian Business, Griffiths urged the UK government to look again at the data, which he believes should be the primary factor in determining the UAE’s travel status.

His comments came after Arabian Business wrote an open letter to Grant Shapps, the UK’s Secretary of State for Transport, urging him to rethink the UAE’s Red List status so thousands of British families who live in the Emirates could reconnect with their loved ones, and so business and tourism travel could begin again.

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 wouldn’t confirm any talks we are having with any individual countries… we are always talking to all international partners. We are in constant communication with global partners and the science is always changing.“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.”

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 and to escape the UK.”

“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.

Linus Bauer (pictured above), founder and managing director at Bauer Aviation Advisory, said the UK’s “main trigger” for toughening its quarantine stance is its worsening domestic infection rate.

“The overall situation in the UK is not promising at the moment, especially when there is a recent spike in Covid cases due to the Indian variant. Hence, disappointingly the UK is not going to change the status of the UAE.”

Bauer said the latest decision is a “hammer blow” for UK expats living in the UAE.  The expert also said the red list ruling would “destroy” expat motivation and confidence to travel in the near future.

“That is not good news for airlines in the short-term. The UAE carriers have been hampered by continued travel restrictions on many of the routes that are served through hub connections.”Bauer said the future establishment of successful air travel corridors between the UAE and European countries and the US could potentially build the “courage” the UK needs to establish a safe air travel corridor with the UAE.

According to a spokesperson at StrategicAero Research, the decision portends “a second lost summer” for UAE-UK bound airlines.

“The continued red listing means a huge revenue loss for the likes of Emirates and Etihad, it also means that British Airways too will feel the pain, especially at a time when BA is already locked out of the North American market – a segment where it derives almost 80 per cent of its annual revenue.”

In an interesting new development, the latest data from flight booking analysis firm ForwardKeys appears to suggest that frustrated travellers have been making convoluted trips through European green list countries to visit the UK without the legal requirement to enter quarantine.

Flight bookings from the UAE to the UK via Portugal spiked by 347 percent for the period of May 1–28 this year, compared to the same period in 2019. The average length of stay in Portugal as an interim destination was 22 days.

Quarantine-free holidays were previously allowed to Portugal just over two weeks ago, 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 this year, compared to the same period in 2019. The average length of stay in Greece as an interim destination was 18 days.

“It seems that people have decided to travel through green and amber countries to visit the UK,” said Oliver Ponti, VP of insights for 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.

Explained: The UK travel ‘traffic light’ list

Green: Arrivals need to take a pre-departure test as well as a PCR test on or before day two of their arrival back into the UK – but will not need to quarantine on return (unless they receive a positive result) or take any additional tests

Amber: Arrivals will need to quarantine for a period of 10 days and take a pre-departure test, as well as a PCR test on day two and day eight. There will be the option to take an additional test on day five to end self-isolation early

Red: Arrivals will be subject to restrictions currently in place for red list countries, which include a 10-day stay in a managed quarantine hotel at a cost of £1,750 per adult, pre-departure testing and mandatory PCR testing on day two and eight.