Skiers turned away from Innsbruck airport

28th December 2021, by Abi Butcher

Innsbruck airport denied entry to more than 100 British skiers on Boxing Day

Skiers headed to Austria are urged to ensure they have all the correct Covid testing and paperwork after it emerged that border control at Innsbruck airport denied entry to more than 100 British travelers on Boxing Day.

Before Christmas, Austria tightened rules to require proof of a booster vaccine from inbound travellers and then on 25 December, Austria tightened its entry requirements further against the UK as a ‘virus variant area’ to require travellers to provide a negative PCR test less than 48 hours old. Previously, the window was 72 hours.

It caught out many British skiers and snowboarders bound for Austria, who were turned away from Innsbruck airport. The BBC has reported that 70 skiers were flown home the same day, but another 40 had to spend the night in a hotel under police guard before being flown home the next day.

It is reported that government websites — including the Austrian embassy in the UK — were not up to date on rules and have angered travellers by issuing incorrect advice.

One traveller said on twitter: “Utter chaos at Innsbruck airport! Although we adhered to all the travel requests from the authorities, we have landed, and they are shipping 60 so us back after five hours of no [sic] information. More planes keep turning up with the same.”

The UK FCDO website currently states: “To travel to Austria from the UK you need to be triple vaccinated (or double with Johnson and Johnson) and show a negative PCR test no older than 48 hours at the time of entry. Alternatively, double vaccination, along with proof of recent recovery from Covid-19 (within the past 180 days) and a negative PCR test not older than 48 hours is also accepted.”

As ever, restrictions are changing all the time so keep so visit gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/Austria/entry-requirements for the latest updates.

• ski
• austria
• covid
• innsbruck

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