Kevin Rushby tackles an escalator for first time in 15 months as overseas holidays restart for green list countries
Luton airport at 6am on the day that foreign holiday travel begins again. The halls are quiet. Many shops are shuttered. At the easyJet desk the staff seem relieved that things are quieter than expected: the mass brawl last week was a nasty shock. Standing on the escalator to the departure lounge, I suddenly realise why I feel disoriented: I have not been on a moving staircase for 15 months. People stand well apart, but are quick to chat.
In Pret a Manger I meet Abby, British but a resident in Spain, who is trying for the second time in four days to fly to Málaga. “I had the wrong letter proving I needed to travel,” she said. She had started remote working before the pandemic which, in retrospect, seemed like a good decision, but the new bureaucratic demands can be difficult and slow to negotiate.
