Watch: Chaos At Malta Airport Due To COVID-19 Paper Checking As Other Countries Relax Travel Rules
As more and more European countries remove COVID-19 travel restrictions, chaos is still reigning at the Malta International Airport.
Footage sent to Lovin Malta shows hundreds of people packed by the baggage reclaim area last Sunday as they waited for their turn to exit the gates and proceed to a COVID-19 paper checkpoint, manned by public health officials.
Although the desks were fully staffed, a number of flights had landed at the same time, causing an instant influx of visitors.
Guests were made to wait for up to an hour and a half, which means it was actually faster to travel from Malta to Rome than from the airport’s baggage reclaim area to the taxi point.
@lovinmaltaofficial The island is one of the remaining European countries with such strict travel restrictions 👀 #fyp #fypmalta #malta #lovinmalta #airport #queue #mia ♬ original sound – Lovin Malta
Barring a change in rules, the scenes beg the question as to what the airport will look like in a few months’ time when the summer season kicks in.
As it stands, travellers to Malta from ‘red’ countries must present a passenger locator form and valid vaccine certificate, while any travellers from ‘dark red’ countries are forced to quarantine.
However, the Malta International Airport and Air Malta have joined calls for the authorities to drop all remaining COVID-19 travel restrictions in the EU and Schengen area.
Airport CEO Alan Borg today noted that the likes of Ireland, Romania and the UK have already abolished all COVID-19 entry requirements, with the Netherlands set to follow suit tomorrow. Meanwhile, Greece has scrapped the obligation for travellers to fill out passenger locator forms.
The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) today also called for an end to all remaining travel restrictions.
“Patchworks of restrictions do nothing to prevent the spread of COVID but rather unnecessarily complicate the running of operations, leading to delays at the airport and business inefficiencies,” MHRA President Tony Zahra said.
“Over the past few weeks, we have seen economies reopening. It is time to remove ineffective restrictions and allow people to travel freely.”
Health Minister Chris Fearne
The government has so far refused to give any indications about when it plans to relax travel rules.
Health Minister Chris Fearne said last week that Malta could relax its travel rules in time for summer to allow unvaccinated people to avoid quarantine if they show a negative PCR test but that he is awaiting the conclusion of EU discussions.
However, he hasn’t stated whether there are any plans to scrap the obligation for travellers to present vaccine certificates and PLFs entirely.
Should Malta scrap its COVID-19 travel rules?
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