On the 23rd March, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, asked all UK citizens abroad to return to the UK immediately due to the worsening threat of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, air travel has come to an almost standstill in the UK as we reach what is hoped to be the ‘peak’ of the pandemic’s devastations.
There are still a handful of flights available to transport anyone who must travel for an essential reason, which leaves those who did not need to travel home wondering, what must it have been like to travel back to the UK during the heightening risk of the pandemic? Were the planes rather empty? Were the airports eerily quiet? What new safety precautions had been put in place to monitor those travelling back to the UK?
On the 26th March, following the government’s request, British citizen Ayse Aksamaz travelled from where she was studying in Toronto, Canada to Heathrow airport - one of the most important airports for repatriation. Speaking about her unusual experience in the airports, she told me, “The airports which I travelled to and from were relatively empty, there were a few more people than I expected but it was much emptier than normal. For example, the arrivals area in Heathrow had very little people in it and it took less than 5 minutes to go through security and customs etc - it took longer to get my baggage.”
Worried about the hygiene precautions airports had been taking, Ayse added, “I don’t even think my suitcases were disinfected/sprayed, so I was a bit concerned about who had been handling it and whether they had been wearing gloves.” When asked about her journey on the aeroplanes themselves, Ayse described, “There was barely anyone on my flights - my first flight had 14 people on it and my second had approximately 100/300 people so they actually let us sit where we wanted, but I felt turbulence way more because the aeroplane was so light!”
“I wasn’t asked at all about if I had any coronavirus symptoms, and I wasn’t given any screening questions or a test at both Toronto and Heathrow”, Ayse explained. “At Heathrow, all they had was just one leaflet stand with recommendations of what to do, such as staying home for 14 days and washing hands for 20 seconds. It felt like the airline I flew with and the flight attendants were more concerned about the coronavirus than the UK itself.”
Therefore, from Ayse’s experience, we could conclude that the UK government may not have been best prepared to monitor people making repatriation journies when they first asked people to do this. It is therefore likely that those who did not themselves take necessary precautions to self-isolate once returning home may have aided to raise the UK’s ever-growing number of coronavirus cases.
Article written by Dina Motashaw
