EasyJet Holidays has cancelled all upcoming package breaks until March as a result of Scotland’s travel restrictions.
The budget travel firm originally announced it would be scrapping all holiday bookings up until February as restrictions were tightened to international destinations.
However, easyJet has now announced that trips booked up to and including March 24 due to travel bans put in place.
It comes as the Scottish Government is set to tighten lockdown restrictions on arrivals into the country next week.
Following identification of a new variant of c oronavirus in Brazil, all country exemptions from self-isolation after international travel will be suspended from Monday morning, according to ministers.
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EasyJet said it is in the process of contacting affected passengers to offer them a range of options which include future holiday credit or a refund.
While the company is yet to make a decision on holidays booked after March 25, customers are entitled to change or defer their holidays up to 28 days before the travel date free of charge thanks to its Protection Promise.
Matt Callaghan, easyJet holidays customer director, said: “We know this news will be disappointing. But we want to give our customers as much flexibility and choice as possible so they can decide what is best for them.
“We’re really proud that, where we’ve needed to cancel holidays, we’ve been able to process refunds in an average of 12 days.
“We’ll continue to do the right thing for customers. And for any customers wanting to change their holiday or make a new booking, we’ve got holidays on sale all the way through to March 2022.
“We know there is light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine. We can’t wait to take people on well-deserved holidays just as soon as it’s possible for us to do so.”
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As for flights only, easyJet itself revealed at the start of lockdown that it would be reducing its schedule and would only be operating routes which are ‘essential connectivity’ – such as domestic and a small number of international routes.
EasyJet holidays isn’t the only firm to have cancelled more trips due to lockdown – Jet2 and Jet2holidays recently announced they were cancelling getaways until late March.
It comes as Scotland is set to bring in tougher rules for travellers arriving into the country due to the new Covid-19 variant discovered in Brazil.
This means that passengers travelling to Scotland from outside the Common Travel Area will be required to isolate for ten days on return.
They must also have a valid negative Covid test result, taken no more than three days before the scheduled time of departure.
Those people from outside the UK who meet the limited criteria to travel to Scotland will still require to undertake pre-departure tests.
This will be checked by operators, and passengers with a positive test result or an invalid certificate will be refused boarding.
The public have been reminded that travel to or from Scotland without a reasonable excuse is not permitted.
-- to www.dailyrecord.co.uk
