With Grenada being put on the Covid-19 “Green List” giving it favoured status by the British government, two of the major airlines in the United Kingdom – British Airways and Virgin Atlantic – have signaled their intention to resume flights into the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) at Point Salines.
THE NEW TODAY understands that the two airlines have rescheduled flights into Grenada with Virgin set for July 16 and BA on July 21.
Just over a week ago, a local travel agent reported that BA had sent out messages announcing cancellation of previously scheduled flights on July 14, July 17, July 21 and July 24 and Virgin did the same for its flights listed for July 16, July 19, July 23, July 26, July 30 and August 2.
According to the travel agent, he did not anticipate “a great rush” by Britons to make bookings to come to Grenada and the Caribbean because of the upgraded status of some of the islands for British passengers going into and coming from a country on the “Green” list for travel.
He said the drawback for Grenada is that fully vaccinated persons are still required to spend at least 48-hours in quarantine.
“Nonetheless it’s a start, it can’t be a bad thing, so let us see if they can sustain it (good passenger loads for the flights)… but that we should wait and see,” he remarked.
The industry official is hopeful that the resumption of flights from London to Grenada will be developed for the island’s sake as a destination for British tourists.
In a release issued last weekend, the British High Commission office in St George’s announced that Grenada, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and several UK Overseas Territories are among the countries added to the UK government’s updated green list for travel.
It said the updated list will come into effect from June 30 as these new countries have met the necessary criteria to be reclassified as the UK government moves ahead with plans to reopen international travel.