Tenerife shuts borders but UK holidaymakers can still travel, Jet2 confirms

Tuesday, 17 Dec, 2020 0

UK package holidaymakers will still be able to travel to Tenerife over the Christmas period amid reports the island was closing its borders.

The island is tightening the movement of residents from Saturday as government officlals try to combat rising Covid infections.

But Jet2 and Jet2holidays confirmed holidaymakers can still travel to Tenerife as planned.

The company said in a statement: "We are aware of news reports regarding Tenerife closing its borders to holidaymakers. We can assure customers that we have received confirmation from the Canaries Government that this is not the case.

"Holidaymakers can still travel to Tenerife to enjoy Christmas and their well-deserved holidays in the sunshine.

"Given this welcome update from the Canaries Government, alongside the current FCDO travel advice, we are operating our flights and holidays programmes to Tenerife as normal.

"We put every effort into making sure that our customers enjoy their much-needed holidays. In line with that, we can assure customers that hotels, restaurants, bars and shopping centres remain open in Tenerife, and our award-winning teams are in place as normal to look after customers."

Along with the partial border closure for locals, the English language Canarian Weekly said other measures to combat Covid on Tenerife include bringing forward the 11pm curfew to 10pm.

The exception will be Christmas Eve and New Years Eve when the curfew will be 12.30am.

In addition, bars and restaurants will have to close indoor areas and operate 50% of the capacity of outdoor terraces.

Only those who are living together can sit together.

Meanwhile, shopping centres will be reduced to 33% of normal capacity and all team sports activities will be banned.

TUI said in a statement: "We’re aware of the news reports regarding the recent announcement that Tenerife will close its borders from Friday 18th December.

We are currently working through what this means for our holiday programme and will update customers as soon as we have more information."

by Steve Jones, Contributing Edior (UK)