Reunite families at Xmas by relaxing hotel quarantine – Heathrow boss

Chaos at Gatwick Sofitel
Busi Mudumu

People stuck in quarantine hotels outside major London airports should be allowed to return home to self-isolate for Christmas, the boss of Heathrow has said.

Chief executive John Holland-Kaye called for the red list Covid travel rules to be relaxed to enable more people to spend the festive period with friends and family.

He also urged the Government to reverse tighter testing requirements as soon as it is safe to do so.

It came after guests at Gatwick quarantine hotels described chaotic scenes after they were forced to evacuate with other quarantined passengers after a fire alarm was pulled at a Sofitel.

Heathrow was used by 3.1 million passengers last month (PA)
PA Wire

Mr Holland-Kaye said: “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas.

“It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely as possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow.

“Let’s reunite families for Christmas.”

People arriving in the UK from those locations must spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel at a cost of £2,285 for solo travellers.

Megan Pearson, 53, from Sutton, spent £3,715 to stay with her husband for ten nights at the Gatwick Sofitel hotel.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in