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The United Kingdom is opening up to vaccinated Americans without a quarantine starting today. To keep up with demand, one of the countries main airlines, British Airways, is adding thousands of seats on its UK-US routes.
Demand For Travel To England Is Surging
Since the UK government announced the removal of quarantine for fully-vaccinated EU and US travelers, there has been a huge increase in interest in travel to London.
Within a couple of hours of the announcement, British Airways saw bookings from the US surge by 95%, from cities such as New York and Los Angeles in the US, and European cities such as Berlin, Geneva, and Hamburg.
British Airways Adding New Flights
To keep up with demand, British Airways has announced they will be adding thousands of extra seats on key routes to the UK from the US and EU.
Existing flights between New York’s JFK Airport and London Heathrow will increase to 21 services per week (up from 17), and Los Angeles and Chicago will increase to 10 per week (up from 7), starting from 16 August 2021.
Additionally, flights between Seattle and London Heathrow will increase to 7 flights per week (up from 4 per week), starting August 23rd, 2021. Los Angeles will also increase to a further 14 flights on the same date.
British Airways said they plan to continue to broaden its schedule between the USA and UK throughout September.
These additional flights are now available to book now on the British Airways website.
Travelers can also connect to other destinations throughout the UK through British Airways’s extensive UK domestic network and a range of destinations across Europe.
British Airways is keeping its flexible booking policy, which allows travelers to exchange their booking for a voucher or move their dates without incurring a change fee.
Sean Doyle, British Airways Chairman and CEO, said:
“We are very much looking forward to welcoming new visitors from the US and EU to the UK from next week, many of which will be reuniting with their family members for the first time in many months. This move will also help boost the British economy and the hospitality sector, which like aviation, has been crippled by the effects of the pandemic.
“We will support our customers as we emerge from this crisis and hope for crucial travel corridors to be established to allow reciprocal agreements. This will allow UK nationals to travel as the UK’s Covid cases fall and vaccination rates continue to rise.”
The news comes the same week that JetBlue airline announced that they will be launching new low-cost flights from New York to London.
What Are The Requirements To Enter England?
Fully vaccinated travelers will not need to quarantine if they enter England from an Amber country, which includes the U.S. right now. However, travelers still need to take a pre-departure test and a PCR test on or before day two after arrival.
Covid-19 Cases In The UK Are Dropping
There was a lot of backlash after the UK dropped all restrictions on “freedom day” over rising cases of the Delta-19 variant. Shortly following, the U.S. issued a level four ‘do not travel’ warning for the country.
However, in the last week Covid-19 cases have fallen by 36% in England, although no one really knows why yet.
Speaking today, Boris Johnson defended his approach to international travel.
“On travel, we have had to balance it because of the anxiety that I think a lot of people have – I have – about importing new variants, bringing back the disease.” he said.
“We also have to recognize that people want, badly, to go on their summer holidays, we need to get the travel industry moving again, we need to get our city centers open again and so we want an approach that is as simple as we can possibly make it.”
Read More:
Travel Insurance That Covers Covid-19
Countries Open For American Tourists
5 Safe-Bet Destinations That Will Remain Open For Tourism
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This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com
Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Rich
Tuesday 3rd of August 2021
Passengers should be careful when booking transatlantic tickets on British Airways. They make great play of no change fees but having canceled my flights twice they wanted to charge me double the return ticket purchase price for my return flight that was the same price on their web site as the inconvenient (missed a meeting call) flight they put me in. So switched booking to an American Flight on inconvenient day and problems ended. BA have been trying to make profits out of Covid and flight cancelations so beware if you book with BA they will try to make money out of you if they cancel your flight. My experience flying to London you are better off booking with American if you wish to travel on a BA service. Personally AA is my preference TATL but everyone has their favorite. Jet Blue entering the fray from JFK to LHR will be interesting.