British hopes of summer holidays abroad quashed!

[Jeffstclair]

It's going to be 'squeaky bum' time for those of us booked on Ryanair Bristol to Chania on 1st July. Still have fingers crossed.

I must confess I had to look up the phrase “squeaky bum time”.....

[Rick]

Reports in the U.K. media right now suggest “air bridges” being agreed with the UK and various countries (including Greece) by 6th July. Also, revised travel advice from the FCO being issued next week.

Following an interview with the BBC earlier today, the Greek tourism minister would not commit to a date when Brittons would be allowed to enter Greece, but mentioned a period of up to three weeks from now.

Chania post indicates ‘mid July’ as being the likely date:
http://www.chaniapost.eu/2020/06/26/gre ... -mid-july/

[chrissyg]

You are kidding? I thought the Air Bridge meant 6th July on both sides, thats the point of it being an Air Bridge. I read an interview from the Greek Tourism minister earlier saying he was hoping for 1st July for the UK and that the agreement on date would be recripocal.

[Joan]

Yesterday Easyjet cancelled our flight from Gatwick to Chania on July 11th.

Joan

[Rick]

Although the U.K. is likely to agree to an ‘air bridge’ with Greece from 6th July with no quarantine restrictions, Greece has the prerogative to decide the implementation date of the ‘air bridge’.

Harris Theoharis has alluded to this date as being mid July, but being dependant on the UK’s ongoing control of the pandemic, so even mid July isn’t certain yet.

[chrissyg]

Its so frustrating going backwards and forwards. I actually read an interview with the same tourism minister who said he was anxious to get uk tourists coming from the 1st July and was hoping to get Boris to create air bridges and drop the quarantines. I have rebooked my flights twice now and all i want is to get out to set up my villa for tourists booked in for july and august who are still keen to come. If the delay is until mid july i probably cant do it. There are lots of residents who are in this position and it would be nice to be able to come to our own houses. With all the strict health measures i am having to put in place in the villa i see no reason why we cant come out now rather than 2 weeks later. All the countries have worse figures than Greece., so dont pick on the UK where the figures are falling. But let Spain and Italy in.And whilst i iam on a rant, its ok for brothels to open but not ok for me to come to my house.

[Kilkis]

I think the media is reporting what they are being briefed and what their readers want to hear. Air bridges do imply reciprocal arrangements but they are event driven not date drive. You open an air bridge between two countries if the risk of infection in the two countries are comparable. The government might want an agreement by the 6 July but that has to depend on infection rates in the UK and Greece being comparable.

Currently Greece is running roughly between 10 and 20 new cases per day with the odd localised spike above that. If you use the higher figure and scale for the difference between population sizes that would translate as somewhere around 130 new cases per day in the UK. Currently the UK is running at around 1,000 new cases per day. There is no way that you can consider those infection rates comparable and so the risk is not comparable. The infection rate in the UK is also falling quite slowly at about 15 % per week. If that continues then it would take about 13 weeks to get the UK infection rate comparable with the Greek infection rate. If Greece allows an air bridge with the UK on 6 July it is basically saying that the economic gain of UK tourism is more important than the health risk to the Greek population. Given that tourism accounts for about 20 % of GDP and the UK accounts for about 20 % of Greek tourism they are placing quite a big health bet to try to rescue 4 % of GDP. In reality even opening on 6 July would still be a truncated tourist season so probably less than 4 % of GDP. Air bridges with some (BUT NOT ALL!) of the Scandinavian countries would make more sense.

As an example Norway has a very low infection rate typically between 10 and 20 new cases per day with the odd small spike above that. Norway already allows people to enter without quarantine from Iceland, Finland and Denmark. Iceland is a small country and has had an infection rate of between 0 and 2 new cases per day for two months now so clearly very low risk. They have had a very intensive testing regime from early in the outbreak. Finland and Denmark have a similar population sizes to Norway. Finland has a similar number of new cases per day so is clearly similar risk to Norway while Denmark is a bit higher between 30 and 40 new cases per day. Norway has obviously assessed that they can accept that increase in risk. Greece has a similar number of new cases per day to Norway and Finland so it ought to be fairly easy to open air bridges with all these countries with little risk in any direction.

Sweden, on the other hand, is Norway's closest neighbour but is running at a similar level of new cases per day as the UK, i.e. around 1,000. Anybody entering Norway from Sweden would have to quarantine for a period because the infection rate, and hence the risk, is so much higher. There is a road route from Denmark to Norway via the bridge into Sweden. If someone travels from Denmark to Norway using that route and doesn't stop they do not need to quarantine. If, however, they stay overnight in Sweden then they do have to quarantine. Greece needs to take a similar attitude to indirect travel.

Warwick

PS Spain and Italy are currently running in the range 200 to 300 new cases per day. If Greece is prepared to open air bridges with them then that tells you what the UK needs to get down to if it wants an air bridge, i.e. about 6 weeks at the current rate of fall.

[Rick]

Regarding the EasyJet Gatwick/Chania route, if you attempt to make a new booking, the first available flight is 28th July. Presumably, all flights booked up to that date will be notified as being cancelled on a drip feed basis.

[chrissyg]

I get that we are not comparable to Greece and hardly likely to be this year to be honest, so why were Air Bridges even being discussed? And why did he say he was hoping to start up with all countries on the 1st and then say something completely different after an announced agreement that it would be 6th July with the first wave of countries in Greece and Italy and Spain. And Spain has even opened up to the UK now.
If tourism is so important to Greece then it needs to start up with the UK before everyone gets so pssd off that the Brits will all go to Spain. I would have been so much happier if he had said no Brits this summer- end of. No-one knows what is going on, Hotels and airlines have had bookings cancelled, started again , cancelled again. And as you say the press doesnt help!

[Kilkis]

Because every country, whether they have done relatively well or relatively badly, are faced with the same dichotomy. Open up the economy and risk health problems from the virus starting to increase again, e.g. see data for the USA and Iran, or don't open up the economy and suffer many problems, including health problems, because people don't have any money. Also governments always want to present a good news story because it shows how well they are doing at running the country.

A recent case in Rhodes was a 9 year old girl who fainted in the street suffering from malnutrition. Her single mother normally worked as a cleaner in hotels during the summer and then got by on unemployment benefit or any odd job she could get during the winter. Unfortunately in Greece if you work for 6 months in the summer paying EFKA you only get unemployment benefit for 6 months through the winter. After that zero. Because the hotels have been closed, the woman had absolutely no money to buy food for herself or her two children. If tourism doesn't open up how many thousands of people like that will be literally starving to death? It is quite possible that Greece will open up an air bridge with the UK despite the high virus risk because of the risks of not doing so. My previous post simply tried to describe what would happen logically on the basis of virus risk. Political decisions are often not logical.

Warwick

[chrissyg]

I agree, we have to all start taking risks to get ALL our economies going again. But we are being very careful now ( not everyone obviously) to social distance and wear masks and the hygiene etc so that we can come out of lockdown and travel and tourism is essential now for livelihoods so lets just do it NOW . This attitude of yeah, maybe this week, maybe next, maybe next month sounds all a bit typical (lol).

[Maud]

Remember Chrissyg, that although you feel many UK people are being careful with social distancing and wearing masks, the behaviour of those on UK beaches, and the street ‘raves’ over recent days, (not to mention Liverpool supporters last night), do not portray the U.K. public in a good light. Don’t ‘shoot the messenger here’ as the press will clearly report newsworthy stories, which will be seen world wide! I cringe when I see such photographs! I am not a reporter by the way, but I do believe the press has a function in life, especially if reporting is accurate. Too much would be hidden from ‘Joe Public’ without them! - Just think of countries where reporting is controlled by Governments!

I can imagine your frustration about your rental villa, but many people are being forced to deal with similar situations just now. - Corvid 19 is a new experience for all of us. Do you only rent to people from the U.K? If you rent to other countries like Germany you could still ‘visitors.’ As for getting your villa ready for them, you must have someone who services it for you between guests. Could you not get them to prepare it for you? I think at the moment we are all having to ‘think outside of the box’ even if we are being forced to do things that don’t go along with our wishes.

[bobscott]

Of course, it's one thing for Boris to say Brits can go to Greece now; it's up to the Greek government whether they allow that to happen or not. Bob.

[bobscott]

[quote="chrissyg" This attitude of yeah, maybe this week, maybe next, maybe next month sounds all a bit typical (lol).[/quote]

Typical of what, Chrissyg?

[chrissyg]

Yes Maud, we do have property managers and they can certainly sort most things out ready for visitors but there are a few things we like to set up and i need to buy some things. We even have some furniture on order and we usually set up things like the internet and tv stuff. We thought last year we would be able to come out and finish bits off in May. We havent been renting for long and we leave personal stuff around as we like to come out before and after summer visitors., and check it all like a lot of residents. It is also OUR house and we want to spend time there. I really would prefer that our guests all cancelled this year. The health stuff we have to put in place is excessive but they wont cancel unless the airline cancels their flights.
I have to say though that i know a lot of idiots here dont obey the rules but the press have always searched for people flouting those rules. ,They managed to find a queue of people walking up a mountain close together when we were told to avoid beauty spots. When you look at some of those beach pictures ( ones from the air and maybe Bournemouth an exception) people were for the most part in small groups socially distancing and it is harder to catch in the open air .I actually believe that the majority of people in the UK ARE obeying the rules and i blame the press for making the UK look like we dont care.