IF we take our planned March trip to Italy, our return flight will have an overnight layover at Heathrow. I know regulations may well change by then, but in case they do not, I am trying to be clear on what we need to do. Looking at the UK website for landslide transit, I see this:
Landside transit
Landside transit is when you pass through UK border control on arrival, but you leave the UK shortly after (usually within 24 hours). You may leave from the same airport, railway station or port where you arrived, or from a different one, so long as you travel directly to that port of departure.
You need to take a COVID-19 test before you travel to England.
You must complete a passenger locator form before you travel to England.
You need to do the following when you complete your passenger locator form.
select ‘Stay in the UK’ under the Your travel plans section
reply ‘I will be travelling for an exempt reason’ to the question about whether you are required to self-isolate on arrival
select the Exemption options, and then select ‘Transit Exemption’
This includes if you are transiting onto the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. You may need to show evidence of onward travel and where you will be staying at the border.
When you are in England you do not need to quarantine or take any COVID-19 travel tests.
You must either:
remain within your port of entry until your departure from England
travel directly from your port of entry to another port of departure in England
So when it says we must “remain within your port of entry until your departure”, does this mean stay at the airport? At an airport hotel like the Sofitel attached to T5? Or is the “port of entry” greater London and we could travel into London and stay there?
The layover would be from arrival from Milan in late afternoon one day til the 11:00 am departure of our US-bound flight the next day, so around 18-20 hours. We would need to take our US-required covid test sometime in the 24 hours before that 11 am flight—-so the proctored Binax test should work?
I know this flight plan carries the risk that we would test positive on that 24-hour test (after testing negative before boarding the flight from Milan—-how likely is that?). The alternative——changing our booking to fly directly from Milan to the US—is very expensive, and carries a similar risk of testing positive before boarding the long flight in Milan (and then we would be quarantining in Italy rather than the UK). So I don’t really want to change the flight unless the regulations change so much that becomes the only viable option.
Thanks for your help. I know this is speculative, but just want to be informed and prepared in case things do not change.