A postcard from Heathrow, where the travel dream has officially died

Amid fraying tempers and cancelled flights, Heathrow has never felt so dark and depressing 

Arriving at the airport is no longer a thrill. Coronavirus has, of course, killed much of the joy of travel – and new lockdown measures and a fresh international travel ban for Thursday has put both travellers and airlines into a state of panic.

Instead of that little flutter you feel as you head off into the unknown, there is dread upon check-in and uncertainty beyond security – and many travellers will be lucky if they even get that far. 

I spent Monday at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, taking measure of the mood as Thursday’s deadline approaches. The scenes were bleak, to say the least. The terminal, which can see up to 40 million passengers each year and usually has over 200,000 departing flights annually, was a shadow of its former self – as it has been for much of 2020.

When I arrived, there were so few people it seemed as though the staff outnumbered the passengers, and the departure boards showed little movement. The schedule was unable to fill even four screens. 

Cancellations have been rife on both sides of the coin – with the likes of Easyjet pulling ‘UK-touching’ flights, while thousands of travellers have axed their plans for fear of being stranded abroad. It’s no surprise that Ryanair is now embroiled in fresh battles over refunds, and travel agents are dealing with an onslaught of reimbursement requests. 

It’s easy to dismiss the entire debacle as another government omnishambles, one of the many we have seen throughout 2020 – but as I wandered around Heathrow I found a handful of human stories at the centre of it all, a reminder of the gravity of our situation.

“If I don’t get on a flight by Thursday, I’m out of a job,” construction worker George Mc Grath told me as we shared a bench overlooking the BA check-in desks. He pulled down his mask and shot me a friendly but weary smile so I could take his picture. He’d been there since the night before, and still had no flight to board – BA cancelled his route to Nigeria on Sunday night, and by Monday lunchtime there was still no word on when he might depart. 

For a man whose livelihood was on the line thanks to BA’s scheduling issues, he was surprisingly chirpy, and was looking forward to getting away from the UK. “I’d rather get there than be here,” he told me. “The public here are being dictated to now and that’s not what we have a government for.”

Sheila, meanwhile, was excited to finally be reunited with her partner after eight months apart. She arrived in the UK for a shoulder replacement in March, just before lockdown. As the pandemic swept across the world, the borders in her now home country, Canada, closed up – leaving her stuck here.

After finally getting special approval for travel from the Canadian Government, she booked a quarantine hotel in Toronto. Successful journey permitting, she’ll be reunited with her partner in a fortnight. 

But her love story is bittersweet. On departing England, she leaves behind her frail 90-year-old mother, not knowing if she will ever see her again. “She said to me ‘don’t even attempt to come back and see me – it’s not worth it, you might get stuck again.’”

It’s stories like this that make my blood boil and my skin prickle with the injustice. It can be hard to feel sympathy for those who’ve cancelled ski trips or winter sun getaways, unless you’re one of them – but the power of travel goes far beyond a holiday. The connectivity we’ve built up around the world has changed lives, and now its destruction is devastating them.

In Terminal 2, the anger was palpable. Here, I saw desperate travellers pleading with ticket desk agents – “But I HAVE a green card” yelled one particularly irate passenger trying to get to San Francisco. Others simply slumped themselves on the floor, surrounded by luggage and resigned to a long wait. 

I had expected to find at least a few holidaymakers merrily heading off to the Canary Islands or Sweden, where air corridors are offering a tempting getaway from England’s impending lockdown. Agents have even reported a flurry of bookings over the last few days, as the Government announced it wasn’t encouraging anybody abroad to return home as soon as possible after November 5, unlike during the last lockdown.

But instead I met people at their most miserable – blocked by bureaucracy and worn down by a virus that has wreaked havoc for everyone, be it their holidays, relationships or livelihoods.