TBM Staff - Mumbai Citizens of India wishing to travel to the United Kingdom through European Union carriers such as Air France, Lufthansa, and KLM by transiting through these airlines’ hubs at Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris are being banned from boarding at their origin in India if they do not hold a Transit Schengen Visa.
Such new post-Brexit rules that have been introduced by European authorities come as a punishment to authorities in the UK by insisting that non-EU citizens are required to hold a Transit Schengen visa in order to fly to the UK on transit flights of its airlines, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
However, since Switzerland is not a member of the block, authorities in this country have announced that Switzerland is exempt from this decision for its airline Swiss.
Citizens from India are also eligible to pass through the Gulf and Swiss territory without being required to hold a transit visa in advance.
In addition, in order to ease the travel process, India and Switzerland further tightened their connections by introducing an air bubble agreement that allows both countries’ airlines to operate flights between India and Switzerland.
Besides, flights from Air India, Vistara, British Airways as well as Virgin Atlantic are being used as alternative ways by citizens of India.
The situation has caused polemics about whether citizens of India should get a refund. In this regard, an EU airline official said that “passengers should be aware of the travel requirements, so refund depends on the conditions of the ticket bought.”
Some EU airlines have requested international governments to raise this issue with the European Union.
The transit Schengen visa permits its holders to transit through one of the countries in the borderless Schengen area on their way to their destination country.
Whereas a regular Schengen visa for purposes such as tourism is granted for a planned stay in the borderless zone countries for no more than 90 days in any 180-day period and also transit through the borderless territory.
Still, airline officials have stressed that the latest requirement to hold a transit Schengen Visa to reach the UK took effect on January 1 last year.
