In an important change, the UK authorities have announced that from 4 October 2021 select vaccines taken within the UAE will be accepted meaning guests can now travel quarantine-free to and from England.

This follows previous announcements from the UK authorities which will further open up access to the UK market from the same date. 

Approved vaccines for travel to the UK

If travellers have been fully vaccinated and received their final vaccine dose 14 days before arriving in the UK, the following vaccines will be accepted:

• Vaccines administered in the UAE including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Jannsen or Oxford/Astrazeneca
• Vaccines authorised and administered in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine programme overseas, plus 19 countries
• After arriving in the UK, guests will then only need to take a COVID-19 test on day two


Changes to UK international travel rules

From 4am Monday 4 October 2021, the rules for international travel to England will change from the red, amber, green traffic light system to a single red list of countries and simplified travel measures for arrivals from the rest of the world.

These rules apply to non-red list countries:

If vaccinated with an approved vaccine for travel to the UK from 4 October 2021

Travellers must:
• Book and pay for a day two COVID-19 test – to be taken after arrival
• Complete a passenger locator form – any time in the 48 hours before they arrive
• Take a COVID-19 test on or before day two after they arrive

Travellers do not need to:
• Take a day eight COVID-19 test
• Quarantine on arrival

If travellers don’t have an approved vaccine they will be considered unvaccinated

In this case they must:
• Quarantine at home or in the place they are staying for 10 days
• Take a COVID-19 test on or before day two and on or after day eight

If guests have visited a red list country in the past 10 days before arriving in the UK, they will be required to quarantine at a dedicated hotel.

Other Etihad destinations removed from the UK red list

From 4am GMT on 22 September 2021, the following countries will be removed from the UK red list – Turkey, Pakistan, the Maldives, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh and Kenya – meaning that your customers will now be able to fly to and from MAN and LHR.

We are delighted to see these changes so that guests can now visit friends, family and loved ones.

For an essential overview of travel to and from the UK, visit etihad.com/destinationguide.

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