Flights from Highlands to Mallorca still scheduled for October despite Spain quarantine move
Flights linking Inverness and Mallorca are still set for take off in October, despite the government recently declaring travellers returning from Spain must endure a two-week quarantine.
The instruction to isolate follows a recent spike in coronavirus cases in north-east Spain.
Travel operators and airlines have called for quarantine decisions to be made on a regional basis, but the government has imposed a nationwide Spanish travel restriction.
JetsGo ran a series of popular flights to and from Inverness and Mallorca last year and this week a spokesman said: “At the present time, our flights from Inverness to Mallorca in October are still scheduled to operate as planned.
"We are hopeful that common sense will prevail and the Balearic Islands will be excluded from this new change in government policy.
“We’re honestly at a loss as to why the government has restricted the Balearic Islands when the (infection) figures in Mallorca are, on average, lower than those in the UK.
“The island has done everything it can to make this a safe destination for tourists and the Balearics were in fact the first destination Germany established an air bridge to in June.
“Our industry had finally started to see some green shoots of recovery after months of turmoil, but this latest move by the government will obviously once again cause great harm to the aviation and tourism industry which needs consumer confidence in order to recover. The government is putting thousands of jobs at risk with its knee-jerk decision-making.”
Inverness Airport is run by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) and a spokesman said: “The current travel advice regarding Spain is disappointing for airlines and their passengers who are looking forward to enjoying holidays in the sun.
“Operational decisions are made by individual airlines and flight operators, nonetheless, Hial is doing all it can to ensure flights continue to resume safely from our airports and we hope more routes will return when conditions allow.
“We continue to be guided by advice from the Scottish Government, Health Protection Scotland and from the UK government and we have implemented full mitigation procedures and processes at our airports to help ensure the health and wellbeing of our colleagues and passengers as well as limit the spread of the virus.”
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