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The chaos started before dawn on Sunday morning: the Netherlands decided to close all flights from the UK with immediate effect until the New Year in the first instance. A few hours later, Belgium and Italy followed with similar measures, and then Austria.
At 5 p.m. on Sunday, Germany and France had not decided whether flights to the archipelago should be temporarily closed or not, but various media report that this could happen on short notice. At 5.30pm, Der Spiegel announced that the German government was working on similar changes to travel restrictions between the UK and Germany.
Borders will be closed after the UK announced on Saturday the discovery of a significantly more contagious version of the coronavirus.
The sudden shutdown comes as more Europeans travel, compared to recent months, because many are going home for Christmas. The closed borders caused the cancellation of several flights at London’s Heathrow airport on Sunday, but most flights continued as normal.
SAS and several others are flying
On Sunday afternoon, a SAS plane headed from London to Oslo, landing at 6.15pm, as one of three planes from the UK to Norway that day. British Airways and Ryanair landed early Sunday. (Photo: Flightradar24.com)
SAS, British Airways and Ryanair had flights from London airports to Oslo on Sunday. SAS had a plane on its way from London-Heathrow that landed in Oslo at 6.15pm. The plane was operated by the SAS Ireland subsidiary, which has crews stationed at Heathrow. The company reports that it has not made any changes to the route plans in the coming days as a result of the new development in the UK.
SAS Information Manager John Eckhoff says the roadmap to Christmas is running smoothly. SAS also flies from Copenhagen and Stockholm to London.
– Throughout the pandemic, we have complied with the ever-changing advice and restrictions of various authorities. Of course, we will also have to do this if some of the Scandinavian countries introduce travel restrictions. We follow the case closely and do ongoing evaluations, Eckhoff says.
– Will tickets be refunded to travelers if they don’t want to go to or from the UK?
– If we fly, normal ticket conditions apply, he replies.
In plain text, this means that the cheaper SAS Go Light and SAS Go Smart ticket types are non-refundable, but the company does offer a coupon that can be redeemed for a ticket later if you wish.
Both SAS and British Airways continue to fly between London and Oslo, and far from everyone is reimbursed. Here are the two players together at the Oslo airport last year. (Photo: Per Thrana)
Multiple refusal refunds
Also in the UK, it creates frustration because more domestic airlines will not grant refunds even if passengers with tickets to other countries face stricter entry requirements or the risk of being barred from other countries in the coming days.
According to Bloomberg, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair have all adhered to rules stating that it is not possible to refund tickets that were not refundable in the first place. On the other hand, the low-cost airline Easyjet has changed the rules and allows people to cancel even the cheapest tickets.
– We understand that some customers now have to change their travel plans, Easyjet wrote in a message Sunday, according to Bloomberg.
Norwegian currently has no flights to and from the UK, and only flies on Norwegian domestic flights.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content can only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
