BA flight threatened by UK lockdown

| 02/11/2020 | 69 Comments
British Airways air-bridge (Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office)

(CNS): Government officials are warning that, as England heads into another full lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes a restriction on leisure travel, the British Airways link between Grand Cayman and London could be stalled. The Cayman Islands Government Office in the UK is now in discussions with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to confirm whether it will be impacted.

London officials said they will share more information as soon as it is available about the flight, which is now a weekly service from London, arriving Thursdays and departing from Owen Roberts International Airport on Fridays.

As well as taking residents to and from the UK, the flight has also been an important link for supplies, mail and cargo between the two countries.

However, travel is being curtailed in England as part of the increased measures coming into place on Thursday, which will see the whole country move to the top tier restrictions because of the rapid rise in the spread of the virus. Overseas travel is being restricted to work, education or other legally permitted reasons.


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Comments (69)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    BA flights staying:)

  2. Anonymous says:

    I would hope the flight would be! Can’t understand why so many Caymanians and students rushed to depart cayman islands for England, knowing a second wave and subsequent lockdown was looming. Now they are going to be stressing the government AGAIN to organize a way out of a COVID zone back home…..

  3. Anonymous says:

    Maybe this presents an opportunity for CIG to reconsider the policies on who can enter Cayman from the UK. Of course Cayman residents (particularly students) need a way to travel back and forth, but why has this been opened up so that everyone can fly their UK resident families in for a Christmas holiday? I understand why people would want their parents to be on a “safe” island with them, but at the end of the day they are essentially tourists. That’s not repatriation, and it clogs up and potentially endangers the integrity of the quarantine system by overburdening it – it is already becoming sloppy.

    I would rather there was a focus on making a clear path and process for all Cayman residents to come and go safely from wherever they need to go (and this includes places other than the UK, which no one seems to acknowledge) with an appropriate and efficient system of testing and quarantine on return. Let’s master that, before bringing in a weekly planeload of non-residents from the UK.

    • Anonymous says:

      If people choose to come and go like you suggest then they should be covering the costs of quarantine themselves, I am tired of paying for other people’s selfishness in the form of higher prices and fees.

    • Anonymous says:

      The purpose of travel is irrelevant. Someone’s elderly parent is first likely to be far more careful traveling here and far more likely to abide by isolation than a bunch of uni kids.

  4. Anonymous says:

    The new LAMP pre-boarding Covid testing now available at Heathrow would make the BA flights much safer for passengers and for people in Cayman. It would be very helpful if Dr. Lee could comment on when this will be implemented for Cayman flights as too many arriving BA passengers are infected and the infection rates in the UK are climbing rapidly.

    • Anonymous says:

      Thank you, a good point. It would also be helpful if Dr Lee and the Government would outline their plan for quarantine for UK students returning home for Christmas. Some have exams up to late December and some go back to exams in January. What are families to do at Christmas? Safety first yes but can we have testing/quarantine system like Bermuda please. They have a similar setup as ours and their system works efficiently.

      • Anonymous says:

        yes the family quarantine nonsense plan at christmas must be stopped.
        surely these poor little rich kids can stay in the uk….

        • Anonymous says:

          what a terrible presumptuous a statement …. we help (pay) for a Caymanian child at school in the UK for school. We cant say more but believe me some of these kids are not rich and come from heartbreaking circumstances

          • anon says:

            5.57pmA lot of Caymanian students are on full scholarships provided by the private sector which includes trips home between each term.

        • Anon says:

          You do realise that a lot of Caymanian students go to university in the UK

      • Anonymous says:

        I’m leaving my child in the UK for Xmas. no point in coming back, 2 weeks in quarantine would mean she gets out on 1st Jan. two weeks and then back to Uni. What’s the point.
        Either that or we all go into quarantine for Xmas new year.

      • Anonymous says:

        And they have Covid circulating in their community…not what Cayman has worked so hard for.

  5. Anonymous says:

    If you read the UK Government’s update on travel for the next month you will see the operation of this flight is down to BA and the Cayman Government. The UK Government is not going to stop these flights.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Nothing has changed. There are not more people of any statistical note dying in the UK now than there were last week. There is zero reason to cancel the BA flights. The passengers go into 14 days of quarantine for crying out loud! The only flights that should be cancelled are the special interest flights that are secretly bringing people in and avoiding quarantine. The BA flight is pretty much the safest of all flights that we allow.
    Guys, stop the silly panicking. We’ve been bringing in hundreds of people from the US and UK in recent months and we are effectively Corona free.
    Do some research.
    or even better, stop watching the news and go for a walk.

    CNS: According to the BBC, Covid: Deaths 10% higher than normal as virus deaths rise
    The point of the lockdown is to prevent the spike in deaths from rising, not wait until it gets to the levels of April and May. Taking this pandemic seriously is not silly panicking.

    • Anonymous says:

      Just take a look at excess deaths over the past 10 years. Compare. Nothing is changing. It is silly panicking. It will prove to be.even today the Uk scientists behind this lockdown are backtracking.
      its madness.
      utter madness what we are doing to ourselves.

      CNS: “Excess deaths over the past 10 years” is a meaningless phrase and suggests you don’t understand what “excess deaths” means. Excess deaths are those deaths over the expected number based on previous years.

      How to deal with the pandemic is controversial and open to discussion. Trying to pretend that the pandemic is made up is dangerous. Actually look at the statistics from the BBC link I gave you. The death rate in England and Wales doubled at the peak of the pandemic before the government finally introduced measures to stop its progress. The current measures in England are to prevent that happening again.

    • Anonymous says:

      1000% percent agree .. History will show that only the dumbest and most frightened tried to block this at the gate and it will destroy the economy and many lives in the aftermath but it has to play out this way.

  7. ELVIS says:

    fly home if you need to fly home. stay home if you can. don’t fly home if you don’t need to fly home. but stay here if you can . work from home if you can but go to work if you cant.

    Everything is locked down in the UK except. schools. supermarkets. shops. work. etc. etc. what a mess.

    Nice one Boris Trump

    • Anonymous says:

      Note England is not the UK.

      • Anonymous says:

        But it might as well be. Scots are just another strain of pretentious chippy northerners and the welsh are little more than a speech impediment. As for norn iron, every country has its problem child.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Weekly flights? I thought they were fortnightly.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Cayman Islands threatened by continuing BA flights without airport departure testing as UK Covid rates continue to increase.

    • Anonymous says:

      Departure testing at LHR only shows the passenger hasn’t got active COVID-19. It doesn’t show if they’re infected and in the incubation stage. The only people it protects are the other passengers and the crew on the aircraft.

      • Anonymous says:

        A test at LHR would eliminate those that are already positive! We have travelers testing positive on arrival! Pre-testing would avoid that!

  10. Anonymous says:

    Please no. We’ve been waiting to get on a flight for months now, and finally have our approval for 5th November, the first day of lockdown. We won’t know until the evening before if the flight will even be allowed. The situation in the UK is dire. It’s cruel to make us stay here any longer and risk infection and at our age, even death. Please Cayman, fight to bring us home.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why the dislikes? You really want people to be left in the UK to possibly get ill and die waiting for a flight, rather than be allowed home to safety in Cayman? What sort of people are you?

    • Anonymous says:

      Seems impossible that you couldn’t get home between when this started in March and now.

  11. Colonial Donkey rides again says:

    Supplies mail and cargo don’t make laugh .close down this foolishness and stop the Corona Express from spreading this virus to this overseas territory have some respect and decency for once !We no doubt paying for this too eh Alden?

    • Anonymous says:

      You obviously don’t have any children who would be stuck in the UK over the holidays without their family? I never ceased to be amazed at the ignorance that keeps appearing.

      • Anonymous says:

        Not that long ago kids that went away to school only came back in the summer because flights were way more expensive than they are these days. People who chose to send their children overseas at the beginning of term knew there was a possibility that they wouldn’t be able to come been for Xmas and should have planned accordingly or kept their children here as most schools are still doing distance learning.

  12. Whine down pan it says:

    Covid 19 Express need to stop flying yah!

  13. Tom Strokes says:

    Praise the Lord! What mail what cargo what supplies????you mean quarantine breakers flooding this place and infecting others wid their sickness? LOCK DoWN!!! see ya next year blokes!

  14. Anonymous says:

    KEEP BA OUT UNTIL UK SOLVE IT COVID 19 PROBLEM! WE ENJOY OUR FREEDOM HERE IN CI!

    • Anin says:

      Why not stop Cayman Airways from flying from Miami & Jamaica as well while you are at it!! It’s not just from the UK, at least they are trying something, what are the US doing

      • Anonymous says:

        Because BA brings in twice as many people as Cayman Airways per flight and BA brings in the most cases of Covid per flight. Cayman Airways is likely to be bringing in Cayanians whereas BA is bringing in non-Caymanians and work permit holders. I know of many people who just went to London for a vacation as they didn’t have to quarantine there and came back..This is not what these flights are supposed to be for…but as usual with the Governor in charge we will always have the “air bridge” whether it is good for us or not..The Brits need to have access to their “colonies” to keep them in line.

        • Anonymous says:

          @9.27am – what a load of trash you spout. You have no idea which flights are bringing in COVID or who is on the flights.

        • Anon says:

          BS the cases coming in from the US are just as high as the UK. The are a high volume of Caymanian students who go to school and Uni in the UK. Lots more people traveling to the US on shopping trips – not exactly an more essential than seeing sick family memebers

        • Say it like it is says:

          9.27am I suppose you work at the airport doing Covid tests on arriving passengers and know where the positive cases come from.
          Question for you : how many BA passengers have been responsible for community spread in Cayman?.
          Your last sentence – yet another racist comment from a local.Those in denial please note.

    • Anonymous says:

      Stop shouting

  15. Anonymous says:

    why would ba lock it down??…the route is no danger to the uk

  16. Anonymous says:

    watch cig get caught with their pants down again….

  17. Anonymous says:

    Finally! Bet the Governor isn’t happy..

  18. Anonymous says:

    If we are still paying BA for these flights who is coming and going on them? I don’t think we have that many Caymanians going back and forth. Are we able to control all of these people in quarantine? Are we planning on waiting on one Super spreader to get out to kill us off.

    • Anonymous says:

      All the rich Brits here with kids in boarding school and university are going back and forth to London like its 1999.Travel was supposed to be ‘Essential’ according to CIG.
      This lockdown on Thursday should slow them down a bit , as no travel to ‘2nd homes’ in or out of England. Families should be ready to conduct Christmas via Zoom , hell we had to do everything by it and still are.

      • Anon says:

        What about all the Caymanian students at University? Are they just supposed to stay in the UK? You happy with that scenario

        • Anonymous says:

          They are British Overseas Territories Citizens

          • Anonymous says:

            Not if they are in University without a student visa.

          • anon says:

            7.36am I bet they all have full British passports and don’t forget they all receive discounts on their fees which other overseas students don’t.

        • Anonymous says:

          Students shouldn’t be traveling back and forth during the term. They should ABSOLUTELY have flights available to come home for Christmas holidays but this fortnightly/weekly flight is unnecessary.

          It is also non-essential travel if it’s their parents going back and forth. If your child is old enough to go away to school, they’re old enough to go a term without parents running back and forth to them.

          Start making EVERYONE pay for their own quarantine if no proof of travel being essential. Essential by definition not by emotion.

  19. Anonymous says:

    Cayman Islands APO staff were not accepting UK Royal Mail earlier today. Whereas the BA air bridge is still running, and the Royal Mail has announced no such service interruption/suspension.

  20. Anonymous says:

    Ohhh No! How will we get our tasty Tesco/Waitrose treats now!? :/

  21. Anonymous says:

    This should be a NO Brainer!!’

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