Now Indians travelling to the UK on EU carriers are being denied
boarding at the origin in India if they do not have a transit or regular
Schengen visa, according to local media reports.
EU carriers include popular airlines such
as Lufthansa, Air France and KLM, which have stopovers in transit hubs at
Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and Amsterdam. Post Brexit, the EU is insisting that
non-EU citizens must have a transit Schengen visa to fly to the UK on transit
flights of its carriers,
However, Indians travelling to the UK can
do so without requiring a transit visa if they have a stopover in Gulf
countries or Switzerland, which isn’t a part of the EU and doesn’t require the
Schengen visa rule for its carrier Swiss. It is important to remember if
passengers are denied boarding at the origin airport in India, they may or may
not be eligible for a refund. “Passengers should be aware of the travel
requirements, so refund depends on the conditions of the ticket bought,” an EU
airline official was quoted as saying.
Fearful of losing business, some EU carriers have reportedly
requested foreign governments to raise the issue with the Union. For travel
agencies in the state battling with a tight market in which the number of
people interested in travelling abroad has reduced dramatically due to
increased cost in the price of tickets as well as the regulations in place with
regards to the vaccines.
An entrepreneur who had plans to visit the UK to sort out
matters of a personal nature, said he would have to book a direct flight to
London instead of taking a slightly circuitous route to his final destination.
This move by airlines on the continent he said was in a way a response to
Brexit.
Nilesh Shah, President of TTAG and one who runs a travel agency said
this was a reality with airlines on the continent demanding a Schengen visa for
those who were travelling to London. He said “There are direct flights to
London from Goa either directly or via Dubai, Oman or Qatar. Or one could also
fly via Switzerland without a Schengen visa. The direct flights are not
expensive.” He said as the number of seats on the route increased the price
would reduce. He said there were two flights to London which were full. Nilesh
said there was a segment of Goans who had Portuguese passports who would travel
at regular intervals to the UK so there was business. He felt perhaps in six to
eight months other airlines would take the decision to increase the number of
seats on the route.
The junior executive of another travel agency who is not
authorized to speak said the number of enquiries was not substantial in the
last couple of months and those who contacted them would generally prefer to
fly directly to London.
Stephen Mendes who is scheduled to fly out to London in a month
said if the situation demanded one’s presence then, these decisions would not
stop anyone. He said “You can fly directly and avoid all the complications of
taking another visa. Keep it simple.”
There
are ways to bypass these regulations legally and the smart resourceful
traveller will certainly do what is needed.
