Guest post by Zoe Price
London is amazing, but sometimes you just want to escape and have a change of scenery, particularly after the year we’ve had. Below, we discuss what steps you need to consider if you are looking to get out of London and travel after the pandemic.
Whether you’re planning to visit the airport for business or personal reasons, there will be plenty of catching up to do to help you get used to flying again, certainly more so for airports.
London airports are famous institutes these days, they even have their own place within British pop culture. There are six airports situated within London, all of various sizes and capacity. Some airports will only have certain flight companies flying in and out from, and some will only go to certain other countries.
These airports all remain open for travel, and your experiences should largely remain the same, just more streamlined for safety and accessible reasons.
Airport Changes
Airports in London and the rest of the UK have had to undergo drastic changes to get used to everyday life after the pandemic.
Previously, if you’ve been to an airport before, you’d be used to packed out terminals at Heathrow and long queues in Stansted. This will now change.
The airports within London, such as Stansted, have individual guides on what has changed and what you should know before arriving. They will be constantly refreshing the information, as it comes, via government guidance.
You can expect airports to be more contactless based, with more tickets and passes used via app than paper. With that in mind, ensure you have an up-to-date smart phone to be able to download any apps you need for boarding and security.
Similarly, it’s good practice to take a portable charger with you to be able to charge your phone when needed. There are a range of options available to you, depending on your needs and requirements.
Airports themselves will be much cleaner and more streamlined than ever, with more social distancing in place. For the short term, there are likely to be less flights taking place to accommodate for this.
Getting to the airports should remain the same, public transport links between stops, cities and airport have remained intact, London being a major city helps here.
Parking is also still a viable option, both short term and long term slots will still be available to flyers depending on the length of your travel.
The Changes To Insurance
With the arrival of a global pandemic, you can only imagine the work insurers have put in to make sure everything is covered medically.
Holidays were effectively cancelled over the last year, so you may not know what you need to keep you safe and covered abroad, unless you were travelling for business reasons.
Due to the arrival of COVID-19, you may need specialised travel insurance when you next fly out. Fortunately, trusted insurers such as Staysure offer coronavirus coverage free of charge with their travel insurance policies.
The situation with the pandemic is always changing, so when you’re flying out of London next, make sure you have coverage for wherever you’re going to. The coverage will now cover all coronavirus issues when away from home, such as emergency medical care and cancellation fees.
Open Destinations
When we arrive out of this pandemic, it’s perfectly possible that not all countries will be open, due to circumstances different to what’s going on here.
So before travelling and planning, check local guidance and perhaps even embassies for more information. Official tourism websites and local government sites will be constantly updating when new guidance is announced. Once the pandemic is lifted, we should see the world start to open once more.
Most major countries should be open, due to business reasons, but for pleasure reasons it could take slightly longer.
