I think this latest narrative is going to unravel quite quickly on this one - just a hunch.

German media reporting that passengers arriving on flights from the UK have been quarantined at the airport and put on field beds while they have to wait for test results (which can take up to 24hrs)..

Italy New Strain
 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...variant-surges
Oh dear,does that mean all flights to and from Italy are all banned, 'what's good for the goose is good for the gander'

I'm not sure what you mean by unravel. In September it was just another mutation - nothing to worry about. Since then it has out-competed all the other thousands of variants to be the dominant version found in new infections. This is what I understand by being more infectious.

Hancock shouting out on TV this morning that COVID is out of control in the U.K.😡 has caused an awful mess now at all airports and ports and has trashed the aviation green shoots of recovery that have been great to see over the last few days ..problems forfood deliveries now and a lot of cancelled flights ..this variant must already be on the continent ..it is only bad here in East Kent and some of Essex ..chaos now 😥

The French have now got their opportunity to play their Brexit game using the virus as an excuse and to play dirty. Give us your fish or we will keep Dover closed. I saw this happening months ago so I stocked up in the times of plenty.

Charley B

My partner works for the NHS in Hampshire and has been told that the two super hospitals in the area in Portsmouth and Southampton are rapidly filling-up with COVID patients and it is likely to reach crisis point in the next few days - Portsmouth is in Tier 4, but Southampton is only Tier 2. The current situation is certainly not being exaggerated, if anything it is being underplayed at the moment and all sensible nations will suspend travel to and from the UK until more is known about the new strain of the virus.

Lurgy New Strain
 

It's in Italy and South Africa,so are we suspending travel to and from these countries?and by the end of the week other countries will have this new strain,what happens then?

Actually by delaying the announcement and letting it spread to Europe, not that it could have be stopped, means that controls over movements to and from Europe will be for a shorter period as it has already escaped meaning it is too late to take action against the UK

COBRA
 

COBRA meeting Monday morning,looks like the doomsayers have won the day,no air travel until the new year? As long as it's reciprocal.

The UK imposing a reciprocal ban on air travel from the EU will come across like a petulant teenager having a tantrum

When other EU Countries are infected by this new strain,as has been confirmed by the Italians tonight,then I stand by a reciprocal ban.

So long and thanks for all the fish?

For many Brexit seems to have become the answer to life the universe and everything.

France is looking after itself, as are dozens of other nations.

Looks like Austria closing from Tuesday morning.

If politicians hesitate in a pandemic, this is what happens. Yet, there are some members of the Conservative Party who are cross at the PM for all the shutting down he has had to do. In due course, Boris will follow the Donald.

Currently several news outlets reporting the following counties have restrictions on UK inbound travellers

Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Ireland, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Portugal, El Salvador, Canada, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Latvia, Estonia and Saudia Arabia

As has been mentioned before, this mutation has already been in circulation for three months - it is already in these countries guaranteed. I think by only banning U.K. traffic for an initial 24-48h period, I think these governments are already admitting that they deep down know this. The U.K. is doing more tests (and therefore surveillance) than anyone in the rest of Europe - hence why they’ve found this trend.

I doubt that 5% of the passengers who left the country yesterday in droves met the criteria of the government for travelling abroad. People living in tier 4 were banned anyway except for essential business travel while people living in tiers 1 to 3 were only meant to travel via travel corridors except there were almost no countries in them.

There are still plenty of flights from Luton today, Bulgaria has closed its borders to the U.K, as has much of Western Europe with the exception of Spain. For most of Luton’s destinations it is business as usual, as the new strain heads out of the country, which is probably good news for the U.K. but bad news for everywhere else as jeannie and bottle comes to mind.

With this mutation being 70% more infectious is flying now considered safe? Luton was never safe as an airport but that is another story. I wonder if baggage handlers and flight dispatchers are now wearing PPE?

Luton has 18 flights that were scheduled to depart today to places that yesterday/overnight have put ‘bans’ in place that have now been cancelled

And the whole lot of them will have the new strain asap.So what's the point?

Which goes back to my original point that air travel during a pandemic is not a great idea. Who knows what is out there and it will just take a version that the vaccine doesn’t work on and the whole world will be in deep sh!t rather than a country or region. This mutation was spotted in September together with 4000 others but it is only in recent days that scientists have spotted its dangers. No easy answers and no easy solutions.