Air transit through Heathrow to another country

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  • Jerome
    Participant

    I see no mention of airside transit procedures anywhere. For example if flying BA from Cpt to Tlv. The BA flight stops in Lhr T3, one then boards the airport bus to T5 and gets on the plane to Tel Aviv at T5.
    Is this procedure unchanged?
    Hopefully no quarantine needed for airside transit passengers if remaining with the confines of the same airport, just changing terminals to catch the connecting flight.
    No international travel permitted from South Africa for many months from now, but still wanting to find out if the procedure is unchanged. Thanks.


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Hello Jerome, sorry I can’t answer your question, but I’m sure other posters will come up with answers shortly.

    From the way you write I assume you are based in S. Africa and I’ve noticed near daily flights to JNB and CPT by BA, with KLM to JNB and Edelweiss once or twice a week to JNB operating on behalf of Swiss.

    I’m guessing they are not flying empty, neither are they cargo planes, so I’m guessing there must be passenger traffic but I can get no information. I’m keen to get back to SA as we have a business there and I’m wondering if you have any further information?


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    I just found this from a link posted elsewhere. Hopefully this will answer your question.

    Exemptions from self-isolation requirements
    a road haulage worker and road passenger transport worker
    a transit passenger, an individual transiting to a country outside of the Common Travel Area, who remains airside and does not pass border control

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    SimonS1
    Participant

    [postquote quote=999429][/postquote]

    Terminal 3 is closed. All BA flights are using Terminal 5.

    And yes you can transit without issue.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    Jerome
    Participant

    Thanks for the responses – much appreciated. Only international flights into and out of South Africa are repatriation znd cargo flights, especially PPE and other medical supplies. All borders have been closed for about 2 months and will remain closed for many more months, so no regular international passenger travel, despite what is showing on airline websites.


    SimonS1
    Participant

    I think that will start to change now as the economic realities start to bite.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    I read on the Swiss government website, that all repatriation flights have now ended. I just phoned Swiss and indeed, these are cargo only flights. They will restart to JNB on June 19th. My problem will now be how to get from JNB to our home in Mossel Bay??

    Also just received a WhatsApp from one of my neighbours. She came back yesterday on a BA flight ex CPT but was told the plane flew down empty.


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    [postquote quote=999451][/postquote]

    So very true Simon. This lockdown is totally unsustainable economically. If this crisis started with a handful of people with the virus coming into country X, then allowing the lockdown to ease with still many thousands infected, whether they know it or not, will surely result in an even greater wave of people being infected.

    it will be interesting to see how Sweden fares. They did not lockdown and the death rate per 100,000 is in the midrange of averages. Their economy is still mainly functioning though. Switzerland, and the canton where I live, Ticino, has had a high rate of deaths, but the majority, 87% where in the age group of 85+ and again many were already seriously ill and would have died in the coming months anyway.

    Personally I think this virus should have run its course. Many more die from influenza each year and this lockdown will probably subject many more to unemployment and poverty.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    openfly
    Participant

    BA flights from LHR to CPT in Aug are looking heavily booked on the days I checked.


    alainboy56
    Participant

    @luganopirate – thoroughly agree with your assessment – I tell everyone (who wishes to listen to me) that every year on the roads there are 1.25 million deaths worldwide (at least in 2017), and yet every day we jump in our cars and drive, or take buses etc or even walk across the road.
    Another figure more relative to the 300 something thousand covid-19 deaths. In 2017 nearly 300,000 died through drowning, and yet we still all go to the beach, to the lakes, to the rivers, we go canoeing, boating, yachting and even regularly take ferries or a cruise. Does anybody say we MUST STOP this immediately??? How many of you drink? Most of you I guess, well nearly 200,00 died worldwide due to alcohol reasons.

    Unfortunately not where I am, so I will be unable to drink myself to death under 24hr lockdown here in the wonderful Holy Kingdom.
    Airports are still closed to international pax flights, so I am still unable to leave, but rest assured the first flight, whether it even be to Burkino Faso, I shall be on it!
    Anyway its nice to know I can pass through ‘Old Blighty’ without bothering ‘Plod’ and the ‘Authorities’ (alas cannot stop to see my family – not allowed) and continue somewhere – Finland is just creeping out of winter, just in the last few days, I kid you not they scraped over 20ç yesterday, and they will now have their usual barely 2 months of Summer, so that maybe nice ( I have a wife there too, I seem to remember)!

    Sorry, if I sound crazy and a little meandering in thought, but if you were stuck here in paradise, as I am – maybe one might understand …………


    capetonianm
    Participant

    [postquote quote=999508][/postquote]
    Not really, I looked at a few dates at random. BA059 showing around 130-180 seats available in Y, 25-35 in J.

    The more I read in the media of Covid the more I am saddened and puzzled at what the world has done to itself. I am confused too, as ‘bilateral’ agreements are made and then the other party refutes the agreement and confusion reigns. In ZA the drink and tobacco ban has pushed yet more power and money into the hands of criminal gangs, the law of unintended consequences, but it should have been obvious it would happen.

    The ‘solutions’ are probably doing more harm to more economically active people than the ‘problem’. Some sectors will never recover, those close to we who are ‘travellers’ (not in the gypsy sense!) may be amongst the hardest hit, airlines, hotels, restaurants and ancillary travel services. I view the future with trepidation but we are powerless to do anything except get back up there and start travelling as soon as we can. My plans for my next trips are all made down to the last detail, the only missing component is a fairly vital one, the dates!


    SimonS1
    Participant

    [quote quote=999538]@luganopirate – thoroughly agree with your assessment – I tell everyone (who wishes to listen to me) that every year on the roads there are 1.25 million deaths worldwide (at least in 2017), and yet every day we jump in our cars and drive, or take buses etc or even walk across the road.
    Another figure more relative to the 300 something thousand covid-19 deaths. In 2017 nearly 300,000 died through drowning, and yet we still all go to the beach, to the lakes, to the rivers, we go canoeing, boating, yachting and even regularly take ferries or a cruise. Does anybody say we MUST STOP this immediately??? How many of you drink? Most of you I guess, well nearly 200,00 died worldwide due to alcohol reasons.[/quote]

    It doesn’t make for such a great story in the Sun and Mail though, and it doesn’t give people something to be outraged about……

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    pheighdough
    Participant

    LuganoPirate – A friend of mine was a pilot on the LHR-CPT-LHR flight a couple of days ago. 7 pilots and 30 hours, with the inbound crew resting on the outbound flight. Whilst the cabin was empty it was packed to the gunwales with freight, both ways.


    alainboy56
    Participant

    @pheighdough – BA have been running mainly B773’s but with a couple of A351’s and B789’s on cargo only flights since the ‘shutdown’ to such destinations as Beijing, Shanghai, Joburg, Dubai Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Hong Kong even Zurich once or twice a week (maybe Nestle’s Chocolate)?

    Its amazing to know how much freight BA brings in (and takes out) by aircraft as normal belly hold cargo and without the suitcase ‘panniers’ needed by the self-loading freight normally carried on the 1st floor, they can carry a full load down there.

    When my father flew ANZ DC-10-30s for BA to LAX in the 80’s (yes some of you will have to look up that little historical fact) he used to tell me that they were always coming back from LAX ‘loaded to the gunnels down below’ with ‘Iceberg’ lettuces.


    pheighdough
    Participant

    Interestingly the CPT rotation was on a B747-400, which must be the only flight since the Lagos repatriation flight a few weeks ago. Quells the rumours that the 747 would be retired immediately, but who knows…

    1 user thanked author for this post.
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