Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said “tens of thousands” of stranded British travellers would be flown home under a new partnership between the government and airlines.
Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, he said: “I can today announce a new arrangement between the government and airlines to fly home tens of thousands of stranded British travellers, where commercial flights are no longer possible.
“Partner airlines include British Airways, Virgin, easyJet, Jet2 and Titan and this list can be expanded.
“Under the arrangements that we are putting in place we will target flights from a range of priority countries, starting this week.”
Mr Raab said there had been unprecedented demand on the Foreign Office’s helplines but confirmed staffing had been tripled to help deal with the onslaught of calls.
The Foreign Office call centre was available for those who could not find the advice they required in the Government’s online travel advice or from British embassies, he said.
“I know it has been difficult to get through for some travellers,” he said.
“To give you an indication of the sheer volume, on average we normally receive 1,000 calls a day to that call centre.
“Last Tuesday, we had nearly 15,000, the highest on record.
“So we boosted our resources, we have redeployed people to our call centre, we’ve tripled our capacity.
“Yesterday, the call centre answered 99% of calls and helped thousands of British travellers get the answers they need.”
More to follow.
