Starting Friday, March 19, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. local time, England will refuse entry to anyone who has been in Qatar in the past ten days. This explicitly includes transfer passengers and will therefore hit Qatar Airways heavily.

The golf carrier maintains connections between Manchester and London Heathrow to the Doha hub. The consequence of the entry ban is that from Friday, with the exception of British citizens and people with UK residence permits, no one will be allowed to enter from Qatar. There are a few exceptions, however UK citizens must also go into quarantine. Ethiopia, Oman and Somalia have also landed on the “red list”. Just recently, UK provided a UAE flight ban, which primarily hit Etihad Airways and Emirates, cause a stir.

According to the current state of information, the entry ban is currently only valid for the part of England. Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have their own “red lists” and so far have not put Qatar on them. In addition to Manchester and London Heathrow, Qatar Airways also flies to the Scottish capital Edinburgh. If this part of the country does not follow suit, there would be a loophole in particular for those transferring to the United Kingdom.