Restrictions on air travel from outside EU, Schengen area until end-January

Portugal has extended until the end of January restrictions on air travel from outside the European Union and the Schengen area, with passengers limited to “essential travel” and required to present a negative result from a coronavirus test taken within the preceding 72 hours.

According to the government order published in official gazette, the Diário da República, the measures initially in force until the end of December have now been extended until the end of January. The situation may be reviewed “at any time, in the light of developments in the epidemiological situation,” it adds.

“The need to extend the restrictive air traffic measures remains, duly aligned with the public health concerns of the present time,” the text states.

Air traffic to and from mainland Portugal from EU countries remains authorised, as well as from other countries in the Schengen area (Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland).

According to the document, journeys are also considered to be essential where they allow for the transit or entry into or exit from Portugal of EU nationals, nationals of other states in the Schengen area, and members of their families, as well as third-country nationals legally resident in an EU member state.

Third-country nationals travelling for work, study, family reunion, health or humanitarian reasons are also allowed to enter.

The order also covers flights to support the return of nationals or holders of residence permits in mainland Portugal, as well as those of a humanitarian nature and those intended to allow foreign nationals in mainland Portugal to return to their respective countries, provided these trips are organised “by the competent authorities of those countries, subject to prior request and agreement and in compliance with the principle of reciprocity.”

The order also allows flights “from and to special administrative countries and regions whose epidemiological situation is in accordance with [EU] Council Recommendation 2020/2169 of 17 December 2020 on air links with Portugal” and which are listed in an annex to the document, as well as “the entry into Portugal of residents of countries on the list, where they have made only international transits or transfers at airports situated in countries not on the list.”

Australia, China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, Thailand and Uruguay and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau are all on this list.

However, passengers on essential flights, except for children under two years of age, may only board on presentation of proof of a negative result from a laboratory test (known as RT-PCR) for screening for infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, taken within the 72 hours prior to boarding.

Citizens who, exceptionally, disembark without proof of a negative test must undergo the test on arrival on national territory, at their own expense, at a place within the airport, where they must wait until notification of a negative result.

“Foreign citizens who board without the test (…), or whose transit forces them to leave the airport facilities, must be refused entry to national territory, and the [airline] company is the object of the resulting administrative offence,” the text adds.