Spain lifts ban on travellers from UK

Spain has announced it will allow travellers from the UK to enter Spain, lifting a ban that has been in place since December 23 to prevent spread of the so-called British variant of Covid-19.

Anyone flying from Britain will be allowed to enter Spain from March 30 providing they show a negative PCR taken within 72 hours prior to their arrival.

Restrictions on travellers from Brazil and South Africa however will remain in place until at least April 13.

“The extension of flight restrictions will continue with South Africa and Brazil, but not with the United Kingdom,” said Spain’s government spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero following the cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Since the ban on UK travellers was put in place just before Christmas Spain has only allowed those to enter if they could prove they were residents or citizens of Spain or Andorra.

The Spanish government had extended this travel ban from the UK on six occasions over the course of the last three months.

However, the lifting of the ban will not spark an influx of Brtish tourists to Spain and its islands over Easter at the same time Spain made the announcement, the UK stepped up measures to prevent foreign travel.

Under new coronavirus rules bring prepared by Boris Johnson’s government, Britons could face a £5,000 fine if they leave the UK without a reasonable excuse before lockdown restrictions are loosened.

International travel by British residents is already banned under most circumstances in the current lockdown, but according to the new laws non-essential foreign travel will be forbidden until June 30.

The new laws will come into force on March 29 as part of Britain’s road map for coming out of lockdown.

The law says no-one may “leave England to travel to a destination outside the United Kingdom, or travel to, or be present at, an embarkation point for the purpose of travelling from there to a destination outside the United Kingdom” without a reasonable excuse.

However, for those with second homes in Spain or even those considering buying one, certain property issues do fall under the list of reasonable excuses to make a trip abroad.

Visiting an estate agent, a developer sales office or show home, as well as viewing residential homes to rent or buy, or preparing a property to move into, all come under the UK government’s new “reasonable excuses for travel” abroad.