Indians Can't Fly To UK In European Carriers Without Schengen Visa

Indian citizens are not being allowed to fly to the UK aboard European Union airlines like Lufthansa, KLM and Air France without a transit or regular Schengen visa. Authorities are stopping these flyers at the origin airports in India itself. After Brexit, the European Union made it mandatory for non-EU citizens to have a Schengen visa in order to fly to the UK on transit flights operated by EU carriers. 

However, the rule was changed during the Coronavirus pandemic, when most flights around the world were suspended and people preferred to remain indoors. Officials said that the change took place in January last year. At the time, India had been operating “air bubbles” with several countries for international connectivity. So, at the time, people travelled to the UK mainly on direct flights from India.

As regular flights gradually resumed, several carriers began offering one-stop routes between India and the rest of the world. But to the surprise of many travellers who had not secured a Schengen visa but were booked on EU carriers, they were denied boarding at Indian airports. A Schengen visa allows people to travel freely throughout the Schengen area, which has 26 EU states without border controls between them.

There are only a few ways non-EU citizens can fly to the UK without a transit or regular Schengen visa – if they take non-stop flights to the UK or one-stop flights through Gulf countries or Switzerland, which is not part of the Eu and hence the rule does not apply to it.

Industry watchers said that one-stop flights (via the Gulf or Europe) have seen good business after the regular flight services resumed but especially after the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Several carriers are offering one-stop services between major cities across the world to cut losses.

Also, the long-haul carriers (India-US, India-EU and India-UK) benefit most with one-stop flights. In this situation, this European Union rule has become a dampener for airliners' recovery after the pandemic.