Spain negotiates with Britain over quarantines

Tui, Britain's biggest tour operator, said Sunday it has cancelled all flights due to depart to mainland Spain, but it has maintained flights and travel packages for trips to Spain's Balearic and the Canary Islands.

Spain says it is negotiating with Britain to exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from a 14-day quarantine imposed on travelers returning to Britain from Spain. Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said Sunday, hours after the British measure took effect, that "our efforts at the moment are focused on ensuring that the British authorities can exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from their quarantine measures." The emergence of clusters of the coronavirus has worried authorities in northeast Catalonia and Aragón but has not appeared in Spain's two archipelagos, which are highly popular tourist destinations for British and other European visitors.

González Laya says that the islands are "highly controlled territories" and that their current epidemiological situation is not worse than that of Britain. Tui, Britain's biggest tour operator, said Sunday it has cancelled all flights due to depart to mainland Spain, but it has maintained flights and travel packages for trips to Spain's Balearic and the Canary Islands.