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British tour operators are preparing to fly all passengers home to the UK from Mexico. The operators cancelled all holidays to the beach destinations of Cancún and Cozumel on the Yucatán peninsula until 8 May, following new Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice on Monday night. A spokesman said: "We are giving customers who wish to return home the opportunity to do so, on special flights over the next few days. As yet we do not have flight details or the number of people who have decided to return."
Thomas Cook, which has 3,000 holidaymakers in Mexico, also cancelled all outbound holidays from Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow to Cancún for the next seven days. British Airways is still flying four times a week to Mexico City. The Spanish airline Iberia is doing the same, but it offered passengers the opportunity to change the destination of their ticket without penalty.
Lufthansa said cancellations of seats on flights to Mexico had increased, and that aeroplanes leaving the country were full. Cuba has banned flights to Mexico for two days. There are usually more than five a day between the two countries. The Canadian travel company Transat AT is flying customers and staff back to Canada and postponing all further flights out to Mexico. Carnival Cruises said that three of its ships had not docked in Mexico yesterday after it cancelled their stops.
Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, which does not fly to Mexico, was last night criticised for saying that swine flu was only a threat to people living in slums. He said: "It is a tragedy only for people living in slums in Asia or Mexico. But will the honeymoon couple from Edinburgh die? No. A couple of Strepsils will do the job."
Major corporations including Honda were also suspending overseas trips for staff.
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