Heathrow Airport has declined to accept additional flights from India until it is included on the UK’s travel redlist on Friday.
It turned down airline demands due to complaints over long lines at passport control.
According to the BBC, the Heathrow airport did not want to add to the current border pressures by encouraging more travellers to travel in.
Many Indian arrivals will be denied entry starting at 0400 on Friday.
Passport holders from the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as those with UK residency privileges, will be permitted in, but will be required to stay in hotels for ten days.
Because of delays in handling incoming travellers, a director at the airport said last week that the situation at the border, which is run by the Home Office, has become “untenable.”
As travellers want to fly before the quarantine takes effect, four airlines have requested to operate an additional eight flights from India. There are currently 30 flights a week between the United Kingdom and India.
The Civil Aviation Authority announced that it had received applications for charter flight permits from India to the United Kingdom, but that these had been rejected or removed because they did not fulfil the eligibility requirements.
A government spokesperson said: “We are in a global health pandemic – people should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary.
“Every essential check helps avoid the risk of importing dangerous variants of coronavirus which could put our vaccine rollout at risk.”
The Department of Transportation reported on Monday that India will be added to the government’s red list due to increasing outbreak rates and the introduction of a new version.
Since then, Skyscanner, an online travel agency, has recorded a 250 percent rise in searches for flights returning to the UK from India.
When the new rules take force, anybody coming from India in England or Scotland would be required to stay in a government-approved quarantine hotel for ten days and pay for their own coronavirus tests.
There are no direct international flights available from India to Wales or Northern Ireland at this time.
Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled a travel to India that was supposed to take place on April 26 this week.
