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Dozens of Portuguese who returned to our country on TAP flights this Monday were prevented from traveling for not having carried out the covid-19 test.
Passengers ended up surprised at London airport, with changes to the directives issued on Sunday by the Ministry of Interior Administration (MAI), according to which only national citizens or legally resident in Portugal could enter the national territory, through the Obligation to present proof of covid-19 test with negative result. In the absence of said test, the passenger would be instructed to take the test upon arrival at the airport, remaining isolated until the result was obtained.
At London’s Heathrow airport, the rules defined by the MAI were distorted and dozens of passengers who were going to travel on TAP flights to Lisbon and Porto remained on the ground. The businessman Tiago Fachada, from Vila Nova de Gaia, was one of those cases. “I arrived at the airport at 5 in the morning, three hours before departure, and, contrary to usual, there were security guards outside the terminal. They forbade us to enter the terminal and said that we could only return to Portugal if we did the test. Nobody was prepared for this situation, because it was not what was on the government website [português]”the passenger told JN, who describes a scenario of “total chaos” at London airport. “At six-something in the morning, I ran into people who had missed their flight to Lisbon,” he recalls.
The setbacks happened throughout the morning: “They said that the rapid test would not work, and that it had to be 48 hours. In addition, in the airport test center, each test is associated with a flight, but the flight that we had already departed. And since 8 in the morning that TAP did not answer the phone. It was incredible “, Tiago Fachada condemned, referring to having been informed, by a passenger who in the meantime managed to contact the Portuguese company, that the situation had originated “in a communication error on the part of TAP, which gave the airport the wrong information and did everyone to miss two flights. “
“In the meantime, they changed that rule and now I am at the end of a line to see if I can catch a flight,” said the businessman, around lunchtime. In Gaia, Tiago’s mother was waiting to find out if she would have to pick up her son in Lisbon, in case he caught a flight. “Changing the rules when players are already in the game doesn’t seem right”, criticized Fernanda Castro.
After the COVID-19 test was finished, João de Brito and Faro de Oporto were among the passengers who managed to board for Porto on the flight that Tiago should have also followed. He arrived at the Francisco Sá Carneiro airport before 11 am, and indicated that the plane was carrying “18 people.” “Many people were forbidden to enter before registering. No one would come on board if they had not done the test, but that was not the indication that had been given. What had been said is that we could come”, he is stressed.
However, the Porto airport arrivals panel noted that the London Gatwick flight, which should have landed at noon, was canceled.
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