Returning islanders are pleased to get back safely
AS COUNTRIES across Europe start to close their borders, islanders arriving home yesterday were pleased to have got back safely.
Airlines have been cancelling flights due to the fall in customer demand since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Guernsey Airport car park, which would normally be busy on a Monday, was mostly empty as travellers chose to stay at home.
Public Health has advised that only essential trips be made in and out of Guernsey.
Later this week it is expected that anyone coming to the island will be asked to self-isolate for a fortnight.
Despite this, the lunchtime flight from Gatwick was busy with travellers. The plane arrived into Guernsey 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Many of the people on board were islanders returning home.
Sarah Hollingsworth, 29, has spent last six months travelling around Asia. But she decided to come home two weeks early.
‘I’m due to go back to work in April and I did not want to be stuck anywhere,’ she said.
She added that the atmosphere around the illness was much more subdued in Thailand.
‘There were not many people talking about it,’ she said.
‘But I have been hearing about it from friends and family. I was not too worried about it, but I’m pleased to be home.’
Separately, Bryan Ferbrache was also travelling back from Thailand after spending several months there.
He agreed there was little concern in Thailand, where just over 100 cases have been diagnosed.
‘I was not worried at all about it,’ he said.
‘But Dubai was crazy.
‘They were only letting 20 people off the plane at a time and they were all dressed up in goggles.
‘But it seems over the top.’
Mick Ingrouille has travelled to New York to see a Broadway show his daughter had choreographed. But it was cancelled due to the outbreak. He left Guernsey last Tuesday and has been closely following the travel advice.
‘Everything is shut down in New York,’ he said.
‘The memorial was closed and we could not get to some of the sights.’
He was not sure if the precautions were scaremongering or just cautious.
‘It was a constant worry about whether I would get back,’ he said.
He said Heathrow, Gatwick and JFK airports, as well as the New York metro, were all eerily quiet.
Not everyone on board the flight was local. One man confirmed he was from Finland and was coming here on holiday.
Another woman, from Romania, had come over with three suitcases and a backpack for a month-long visit.
She took extra precautions, even wearing a mask while in Guernsey.
‘She said she worked online and was considering staying in Sark for her visit.
‘It’s a smaller community and there is clean air,’ she said.
