The expectation was high: British press had reported that Portugal would be included in the revised list of safe destinations for the British to travel to without the obligation to quarantine on their return. But Boris Johnson's government again gave Portugal a red card, as it did the first time, on July 6, leaving the country off the list.
To the list of 59 destinations that already been given a "green light" from the United Kingdom for an air corridor, five more countries were added (Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), thus keeping Portugal out.
The reassessments will now be made weekly (there may be changes in the measures if there is new data) and the border control measures are updated every 28 days (in this case, August 24), meaning that the typical tourist summer season has practically been lost.
This Thursday, The Times had reported that Portugal was well on track to enter the list of air corridors with the United Kingdom in this second phase, stressing that the British Government was in the process of giving in to "powerful pressure" from diplomats and lobbyists of the Portuguese Government in this sense.
British newspaper the Daily Telegraph had also reported their own claims, saying that the lifting of restrictions to Portugal could eventually be done through "regional air corridors", highlighting that the Portuguese regions of Madeira, Azores and Algarve had a reduced number of cases compared to Lisbon, while being the most popular destinations in the country for English tourists.
"Regional air bridges are an option for countries with localized outbreaks," a British Government Ministry of Transport source told the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
For Madeira and the Azores, the expectation was that they would be officially integrated into an air bridge with the United Kingdom with this review, at least through regional corridors, taking into account that the epidemiological situation is controlled in these archipelagos, and that they are making screening tests on passengers upon arrival.
The regional governments of Madeira and the Azores are still awaiting clarification on whether or not they are included in the list of destinations considered safe for air corridors with the United Kingdom, claims Portugal’s O Expresso.
For the Algarve, where British tourism accounts for about a third of the total Portuguese tourism revenue, and accounts for 50% of passengers arriving at Faro airport, the prospects are bleak. "It is more than a lost year", says Elidérico Viegas, president of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve, emphasizing that "the truth is that the Algarve was practically out of the pandemic, but was severely affected by criteria that does not take into account other realities".
Regarding the UK's first rejection of a Portuguese air bridge, "we never hid the disappointment with this decision", stresses the president of AHETA.
"We were confident that this year we would make strategies to help defuse the pandemic months, which forced a 100% stop in March, 90% in April and May, and our hope was for July and August."
According to the head of the Algarve hotel association, the criteria that led the United Kingdom to exclude Portugal was "incomprehensible, they were based on infections per 100 thousand inhabitants, which occur mainly in the worst area. Lisbon, which ended up affecting the rest of the country".
The president of AHETA maintains that in this process an assessment should have been made by region, and not by country, "as in Spain, there are Spanish tourist areas with different rules from the rest of the country, such as the Balearic Islands".
Viegas also stresses that "some English ended up coming to the Algarve anyway, but still, you can see the negative impact this is having". The AHETA head concludes by pointing out that "the months of July, August and September are the months of tourism, and many people who had scheduled a trip to the Algarve cancelled, many have not come and have gone to other destinations".
