No Plans to Cancel UK-Ireland Flights Over New Covid Strain, Airlines Say

Airlines are not planning to cancel flights to Ireland due to a new strain of Covid-19 that is aggressively spreading across south-east England.

Ryanair and Aer Lingus have said that neither of them intends to suspend flights between Ireland and the United Kingdom, amid fears over the rapid spread of the new mutation.

It comes as the Netherlands banned air travel from the UK, after health authorities confirmed at least one case of the new strain that has prompted parts of the UK to revert to lockdown rules.

Relaxing coronavirus rules for Christmas has been ruled out for millions of people in London and much of the south-east of England, after the mutation caused a rapid increase in cases.

With all non-essential travel out of the region banned after midnight, thousands of Irish living in the UK have been forced to cancel plans to spend Christmas at home.

I think if the flights are allowed to leave, we will certainly see that people will return

A survey conducted by FRS Recruitment last month found that more than four in ten Irish workers in the UK planned to return home for the holiday period.

Colin Donnery of FRS Recruitment said he believes the Irish will continue to try to get home despite a travel ban in England.

“People will have finished working in the UK on Friday and organized on Saturday and Sunday, and will have come back on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I think this has huge implications,” he said.

“I think if the flights are allowed to go, we will certainly see that people will come back. Obviously, if the flights don’t go, you know, they obviously can’t come back unless they potentially take a boat home. “

Donnery said the comparatively lower rates of Covid-19 in Ireland previously encouraged foreigners to return.

Christmas plans

“As we talked to people, we felt that 40 percent [who planned to return] it would actually increase, ”he said.

“Due to the first two weeks in Ireland our Covid rate was relatively under control, we had a feeling that more people than 40 percent were thinking of returning.”

Public health officials have urged families across the Republic to reconsider their Christmas plans, amid the rapid growth of Covid-19 regardless of the new UK strain.

In Northern Ireland, people have been urged to keep their Christmas bubbles as small as possible amid the “new aggressive strain” of Covid-19.

UK officials said the new mutation has been spreading 70 percent faster and already accounts for 28 percent of London infections.

In light of the tension, all of Wales will enter a national lockdown at midnight tonight, and family gatherings will only be allowed on Christmas Day.

In Scotland, the festive bubble has also shrunk to just one day, with a “strict” ban on travel to the rest of the UK.

In the Republic, the Government has said that no test carried out by the National Virus Reference Laboratory until Saturday night has detected the new strain of Covid-19.