Quarantine rules branded 'confusing' by passengers arriving at ghost-town airports in UK

A passenger from Tel Aviv spoke of “chaos” as his plane landed.

He said: “I had no idea of the quarantine. When I arrived there were long queues.”

At Stansted Airport, most passengers on a flight from Eindhoven in Holland had not filled in forms required by quarantine regulations before they landed.

Uwe Bogisch, 51, a car salesman was in the UK to pick up a vehicle. He said: “I had completed the form online, almost no one else had. It’s chaos.”

Passenger Ali Gurlek, from London, said: “We didn’t know we had to fill in the form so had to do it when we arrived. There were queues. I agree with the quarantine but this is a shambles.”

Netti Rexhmet, who runs an off-licence in Chigwell, said he opposed the measures.

He said: “I am getting back from Holland and this is a nightmare. It’s too much ... I can’t go back to work in my shop, it affects my living badly. There is also almighty confusion.”

Some passengers were less critical. Cerys Evans, a medical researcher from London, said: “The quarantine is important. I am going to self-isolate of course. I am going straight home to bed. A lot of people on the flight had not filled in the paperwork before they got on the flight though.”

Passengers embarking on Eurostar journeys to continental Europe also criticised the new rules as “stupid” and “pointless”.

Clare Feuillatre, 29, a sommelier, was travelling home to Nantes and will return to the UK on June 23, so will face quarantine before she goes back to work.

“I booked my tickets before the new quarantine was announced so it means I will have to isolate for two weeks when I come back to London. It is not ideal and seems a bit stupid.”

Kelly Gillet, 28, who was returning to Paris after spending the weekend in the UK visiting her boyfriend, said she had cancelled her next trip to the UK because of the quarantine rules. “I have to work. So I can’t come back and be in quarantine for two weeks.”

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye stepped up his criticism of quarantine: “Whilst we are supportive of any measures deemed necessary to prevent a second wave, a plan must be urgent around how we will exit a blanket approach to quarantine both safely and swiftly.

“Failure to apply a more reasonable risk-based approach, enabling travel between low risk countries, will unnecessarily surrender even more jobs to this disease. Inaction could have a significant impact on Boris Johnson’s constituents, with over 11,000 Heathrow colleagues based in the borough of Hillingdon alone.”

Ryanair chief executive Mr O’Leary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “We’re seeing thousands of British families booking their holidays in Portugal, in Spain and Italy, but there’s almost a collapse of inward bookings bringing those Italians, bringing those Europeans here to the UK, on which Britain’s tourism industry depends, particularly in the peak months of July and August.

“What’s irrational about it is all of those countries have a much lower Covid rate than the UK.”

British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair have sent a pre-action letter, the first step in an application for judicial review, which argues the restrictions are disproportionate.

But Home Office minister Kit Malthouse said quarantine was needed “for the moment” to cut down the risk of a second wave of infections.

“Certainly for the moment the advice is avoid all non-essential travel and that includes travel overseas, and obviously we remain in a critical moment in terms of dealing with the pandemic,” he said on Sky.

“So, ensuring we give ourselves the best chance of coming out of that without a second spike is key and that’s why from today this 14-day quarantine has been introduced.”

In a round of media interviews this morning, Mr Malthouse repeatedly used the phrase “for the moment”, implying that he and other ministers were keen to jettison or water down the policy at the first opportunity.