Coronavirus: UK government’s £75m repatriation plan will be bigger than Thomas Cook airlift

'This is not going to be quick or easy' – Grant Shapps

(10 Downing Street/AFP via Getty)

The government has warned British travellers stranded abroad that the £75m airlift to repatriate UK citizens “will not be quick or easy”.

As coronavirus lockdowns extend around the world, large groups of British travellers are located in South Africa, Australasia, India and other Asian countries.

The repatriation operation was announced at the daily 10 Downing Street briefing on Monday by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab. He said: “An unprecedented number of British travellers are trying to get home.”

But ministers say they do not know how many UK citizens are abroad – nor when the airlift will begin or which locations it will serve.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday morning, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps said: “This is not going to be quick or easy.

“Our rescue will be larger than the German one, which I think is €50m [£45m]. This is a £75 million rescue, so it’s on scale, and actually we probably had a lot more people abroad in the first place.

“The scale of it is enormous. I handled the Thomas Cook repatriation, which was the largest at the time. This one is even bigger simply because it’s not a single airline and we don’t know where everybody is.”

Asked if the UK government had a responsibility to bring everyone home who wanted to be repatriated, Mr Shapps said: “I do accept that there is a duty on us to help British citizens abroad. We don't know every circumstance and where people are.

“It's a much more complex and more global affair and it will take time and some patience.”

Early on in the coronavirus crisis, two repatriation flights were organised from Wuhan – the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak – and one from Tokyo, carrying 43 passengers from the stricken cruise ship, Diamond Princess.

Since then, the only coordinated rescue effort has been to Peru, where an estimated 1,000 UK travellers have been brought back in a series of four British Airways flights.

Another took place at the weekend from Accra in Ghana.

In addition, the cruise line Fred Olsen chartered three British Airways planes to fly from Havana to Heathrow after Cuba allowed Braemar to dock, following other ports’ refusals to accept the ship.