Heathrow Airport in London, the UK’s largest and busiest airport, has declined requests from at least four international aircraft carriers to land eight extra flights from India on Thursday, ahead of the coronavirus pandemic “red list” travel ban which comes into force from Friday. The airport said the decision to decline requests for additional flights was taken to ensure that the existing pressures on the border are not “exacerbated”, resulting in long queues and crowds at passport control on arrival.
India’s addition to the travel “red list” was announced in the House of Commons earlier this week amid 103 cases recorded in the UK of a new variant of coronavirus first detected in India. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs that the decision had been made after studying the data and on a precautionary basis. “That means that anyone who is not a UK or Irish resident or a British citizen cannot enter the UK if they have been in India in the previous 10 days. UK and Irish residents…