Airlines obliged to check travellers’ Covid paperwork in bid to cut queues
AIRLINES will be forced to go through holiday covid paperwork at foreign check-in desks in a bid to slash queues at the British border.
Ministers have ordered carriers to check passenger locator forms and - with the all clear sent to Border Force officials in the UK.
The Department of Transport already asks airlines and carriers to do pre-departure checks, but they will be better integrated into the immigration system.
It should mean more e-gates open at airports, and shorter queues at in person counters.
It comes as rescue flights to Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca are being fired up by airlines to take stricken Brits back home before they have to quarantine.
The sunshine isles will be dumped from the green list on Monday, meaning unvaccinated Brits will have quarantine on their return home.
Jet2 chief Steve Heapy said the airline was “not obliged” to take people home early but was looking into laying on extra planes to jet tourists home.
He added: “I find it really upsetting that effectively we've got, in many ways, a two tier society.
“For the average person travel is beyond them because they are going to have to pay for tests when they come back.
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“But FIFA officials are exempt, people that run international businesses are exempt, ministers in the government seem to be exempt because they're on some sort of trial scheme.
“Meanwhile the average person can’t go on holiday to relax.”
