India’s super-rich spent lakhs to reach Britain in private jets before the implementation of the red-list deadline. According to a report by Times of India, the website FlightAware shows that eight private jets arrived from India at London Luton airport in 24 hours before the travel restrictions kicked in April 23.
Such a flight journey could cost over Rs 72 lakh. It is stated that four of these flights flew from Mumbai to London, three from Delhi and one from Ahmedabad.
Britain on Monday added India to its COVID-19 travel red list, which effectively bans all travel from the country and makes a 10-day hotel quarantine compulsory for UK residents arriving back to the country.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the move in the House of Commons as he revealed that 103 cases of the so-called Indian variant had been identified in the UK, of which the "vast majority have links to international travel".
After this announcement, some Indian travellers were unable to get any seats on direct flights to the UK last week. Meanwhile, there were some travellers including students, who requested additional flights from India to the United Kingdom.
