Two hour-long queues to show COVID-19 documentation before being allowed airside were reported at Heathrow on Saturday, while there were complaints of a lack of staff at Stansted Airport causing “chaotic scenes”.
Airports and airlines were expecting their busiest weekend of the year, with hundreds more flights and thousands more passengers than at any time during the COVID pandemic.
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Speaking to Times Radio, crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse apologised for the delays and suggested that airline staff could be among those made exempt from having to isolate if identified as a close contact of someone who tests positive for coronavirus.
More on Covid-19
“I know Border Force are one of the frontline services that will be able to access more of this test and release,” he said.
“And I think at Heathrow yesterday we had a technical issue with the e-gates where they went down for 90 minutes or so. That caused a problem and I’m very sorry about that, and I’m sorry for the people that were inconvenienced.
“Hopefully Border Force will be relieved of some of the aspects of the pingdemic.”
Asked if airline staff could be made exempt as well, he said: “Yes, we would be in conversation with employers.”
Heathrow was expecting to welcome about 128,000 passengers over this weekend, although that is down from pre-pandemic daily volumes of around 230,000 to 260,000 in July 2019.
Chief executive John Holland-Kaye said more staff would be deployed to make sure passengers had a “smooth journey”.
However, Fiona Brett, a violinist travelling to Frankfurt with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, said she had to queue for two hours at Heathrow on Saturday to show her COVID vaccination certificate to staff at check-in, despite already checking in online.
Ms Brett, from Watlington, Oxfordshire, said the “total chaos” meant her 9.30am flight was delayed.
“They were constantly calling people out of the queue for the next flight that was closing,” she said.
“Actually it would have been better to turn up at 8.30 and get called from the back of the queue to the front – total chaos.
“I believe the queues were caused not by too many people but by the airlines having to do all the extra checks before properly checking in.”
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Holiday hotspots moved back to amber list
Other passengers vented their frustrations via social media about the queues at Stansted Airport, with one labelling the scenes “chaotic”.
Manchester Airports Group said it was expecting 958 flights at Manchester Airport from Friday to Monday, 224 at East Midlands Airport and 1,330 at Stansted.
This is an increase from the same weekend last year, when 632, 177 and 735 flights respectively took off.
But it is still significantly fewer than over the same period in 2019 – 2,512, 503 and 2,139 respectively.
Gatwick Airport was expecting to see around 250 to 260 flights and between 25,000 and 27,000 passengers a day over this weekend, up from a low of just 15 flights a day at one point in the pandemic.
Budget airline easyJet said it was expecting to transport some 135,000 passengers from the UK this weekend across more than 80 routes to a variety of green and amber-list destinations in Europe.
A total of 251 flights were due to take-off, flying to destinations including Malta, Madeira, Malaga in Spain, Faro and Lisbon in Portugal, and Corfu and Athens in Greece.
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Disruption to international travel should be expected – transport secretary
Tui said it had almost double the numbers of passengers setting off this weekend compared to last, with the Balearic islands and Greece the “clear favourites” for Britons jetting off for some sun.
Jet2 had 170 flights going to more than 40 destinations, up from around 70 flights to six places last weekend.
A traffic light system for international travel has been in operation since May, with destinations given a green, amber or red designation.
People returning from green list countries do not have to quarantine when they get back, but only a handful of European tourist hotspots are in this tier.
Travellers coming back from amber list countries have to isolate upon their return, but there is an exemption for those who are fully vaccinated as well as under 18s.
Rachel Reeves has been warned that firms face a “make-or-break moment” at next month’s budget.
The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) urged the chancellor, who is widely expected to announce tax hikes in November’s budget to fill a gap in the public finances, to steer clear of increasing levies on businesses.
Ms Reeves raised taxes by £40bn last year and the BCC said business confidence had not recovered since.
“Last year’s budget took the wind from their sails, and they have been struggling to find momentum ever since,” BCC director-general Shevaun Haviland said.
She said firms felt “drained” and could not plan ahead as they expected “further tax demands to be laid at their feet” when the budget is delivered on 26 November.
“The chancellor must seize this moment and use her budget to deliver a pro-growth agenda that can restore optimism and belief amongst business leaders,” Ms Haviland added.
“This year’s budget will be a make-or-break moment for many firms.”
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The BCC also called for a reform of business rates and the removal of the windfall tax on gas and oil introduced by the last government.
In its submission, the industry body outlined more than 60 recommendations, including the proposal of further infrastructure investment, cuts to customs barriers and action on skill shortages.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced Labour would aim to approve 150 major infrastructure projects by the next election, with Labour already pledging to support expansions of both Heathrow and Gatwick airports – another of the BCC’s requests.
While the Treasury would not comment on budget speculation, a spokesperson insisted Ms Reeves would “strike the right balance” between ensuring funding for public services and securing economic growth.
She has vowed to stick to Labour’s manifesto pledges not to raise taxes on “working people”.
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Household spending on the wane
The BCC’s plea to halt further tax rises on businesses comes as retail sales growth slowed in September.
“With the budget looming large, and households facing higher bills, retail spending rose more slowly than in recent months,” Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said.
“Rising inflation and a potentially taxing budget is weighing on the minds of many households planning their Christmas spending.”
Total retail sales in the UK increased by 2.3% year-on-year in September, against growth of 2% in September 2024 and above the 12-month average growth of 2.1%, according to BRC and KPMG data.
While food sales were up by 4.3% year-on-year, this was largely driven by inflation rather than volume growth.
Non-food sales growth slowed to 0.7% against the growth of 1.7% last September, making it below the 12-month average growth of 0.9%.
Image: Total retail sales in the UK increased in September compared to the year before. File pic: PA
Online non-food sales only increased by 1% against last September’s growth of 3.4%, which was below the 12-month average growth of 1.8%.
“The future of many large anchor stores and thousands of jobs remains in jeopardy while the Treasury keeps the risk of a new business rates surtax on the table,” Ms Dickinson said.
“By exempting these shops when the budget announcements are made, the chancellor can reduce the inflationary pressures hammering businesses and households alike.”
I’ve been around a while and seen a lot of the insides of international summits over the years, but this one was truly extraordinary.
Over 20 leaders flew to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt from all over the world – Indonesia, Pakistan, Norway, Canada – to witness the signing of Donald Trump’s peace plan.
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6:05
‘We have peace in Middle East’
This historic day was pure theatre for Trump from start to finish. Flying in from Israel, where he had met hostage families and then addressed the Israeli parliament, he arrived a whopping three hours late, keeping a gaggle of world leaders waiting.
We stood around in corridors watching them move from one room to another to hold meetings with each other, presumably to talk about phase two of Trump’s peace deal.
Testimony to the power of Trump
At one point, Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with his Turkish counterpart included France’s Emmanuel Macro. That then somehow morphed into a summit which also brought in the Germans, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar. More chairs kept coming into the room until there was the equivalent of a cabinet table of leaders and advisors sitting in a long line facing each other.
What they were talking about was how each country could help in phase two of the peace effort. Now Trump had, alongside fellow signatories of this deal – Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey – ended the war, could they maintain the peace?
As Starmer put it: “We can’t treat today as historic and let it drop tomorrow.”
But these mini summits in the margins happened by fault rather than design. This day really was designed to bear witness – and offer acknowledgement – to Trump. All of these leaders turned up pretty much in the dark as to what the day held, with his peace summit convened 48 hours earlier.
That they dropped plans to make their way to Egypt is testimony to the power Trump wields.
Image: World leaders at the Gaza peace summit
He was utterly omnipotent. First, there was the greeting ceremony, in which each leader filed in individually for a photo and handshake with him before all returning to the stage for the family photo.
Then, at the signing ceremony, Trump sat with his three fellow signatories as the world leaders stood behind him.
“This took 3,000 years to get to this point. Can you believe it?” Trump said as he signed that deal. “And it’s going to hold up, too. It’s going to hold up.”
Finally, in another giant hall, Trump gave a speech in which he ran through all the leaders who had turned up – praising them or fondly poking a bit of fun at them accordingly, as (most) of them stood behind him.
He teased Macron for sitting in the front row rather than joining the others on the stage, joking it wasn’t like him to be low-key. He described Meloni as a “beautiful young woman”.
“I’m not allowed to say it because usually it’s the end of your political career if you say it – she’s a beautiful young woman,” said Trump mid-speech. “You don’t mind being called beautiful, right? Because you are,” he turned to say to her – her reaction obscured from view.
Now for the ‘easy part’?
Soon after, the prime minister of Pakistan, invited to say a few remarks by Trump, renewed his call for the US president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Having brokered the deal, Trump took the moment and made it into his summit on his terms, as fellow leaders fell into line, literally standing behind him. And in his characteristic bullishness, he told his audience in this final speech that the hard part – the ceasefire – had been done, and rebuilding Gaza was the easy part.
Image: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
That isn’t really what the rest of them believe: 92% of Gazans have been displaced, the Gaza Strip is a wasteland. Organising a peacekeeping force, getting Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the strip, putting together a technocratic team and peace board to oversee the running of Gaza still needs to be done.
This was a largely celebratory day, but there are concerns whether this deal will hold up. Trump says Hamas needs to disarm and disband, and yet one of their most senior leaders told Sky News a few days ago, it won’t.
Meanwhile, there is a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The UK has in short order sent in £20m of aid to try to help with sanitation.
On the British side, the prime minister said he had offered to help demilitarise the strip, saying the UK can take a role in “monitoring the ceasefire but also decommissioning the capability of Hamas and their weaponry, drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland”.
“It’s really important we keep that focus. We mustn’t have any missteps now,” he said.
Image: Drone footage of Gaa
Trump’s peace board is still in its infancy – Starmer told me he isn’t going to sit on it, with the make-up still being discussed, while Tony Blair’s participation is controversial.
Trump said on the way over to Egypt that he was going to canvass opinion to make sure everyone is happy with the former prime minister’s presence. It comes after Bassem Naim of Hamas told Sky News that Blair was not welcome in Gaza after his role in the invasion of Iraq.
When I asked Starmer if he thought Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he said “there’ll be plenty of people, I’m sure, nominating him” – as he paid tribute to him for getting “leaders to this position”.
Now the task for them all is to implement what Trump has set in train. If his plan works, he would be sitting on an achievement that has eluded successive US presidents for decades.
Trump should rightly be lauded for ending the war, now he must bring the peace.