Revolt of the airline chiefs over holiday quarantine
As minister jets home early from Spain to face music
TRAVEL bosses last night urged Boris Johnson to drop blanket restrictions on whole countries as the row over quarantine rules escalated.
Amid signs of a major revolt, a coalition of 47 airlines, airports and tourism leaders also called on him to introduce virus tests for those arriving in the UK – warning the industry could be ‘permanently scarred’.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the bosses of British Airways, easyJet, Jet2 and Wizz Air demanded the ‘urgent’ adoption of a more ‘nuanced’ policy. The signatories included chief executives of Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, as well as Jonathan Hinkles, chief executive of Loganair and Derek Provan, boss of AGS Airports, which owns Glasgow and Aberdeen airports.
They called for the introduction of ‘regional travel corridors’ to replace blanket measures that mean those arriving from any part of an at-risk country have to quarantine for 14 days.
They suggested this could allow holidaymakers to resume travel to the Spanish islands and some US states. But as he returned to the
‘Disastrous roulette’
UK last night having cut short his own family holiday to Spain, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps defended the Government’s decision to require travellers from the country to isolate for 14 days.
He expressed sympathy with holidaymakers’ frustrations at the change brought in with only a few hours’ notice on Saturday evening, but insisted it was the ‘right thing to do’.
Mr Shapps said: ‘I’m very, very sorry and upset for the thousands of Brits who are either away or perhaps even haven’t managed to go away this summer as well to Spain. But it’s absolutely essential we acted when we did, it’s why all four nations of the United Kingdom acted together and the figures since have turned out to justify that action.
‘We have to, I think, have a clear message and make sure we act by adding entire countries to that list for the time being.’
He said the Government had considered excluding certain Spanish islands from the measures but chief medical officer Chris Whitty ‘was very clear with us that he was concerned about the data’. He added: ‘It had doubled in just a few days. He was concerned to see what was happening in the islands and that’s why we make it a wholecountry approach in these things.’
Pressure was last night growing on the Government to offer travellers coronavirus tests when they arrive in this country.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye yesterday warned holidaymakers face a disastrous ‘quarantine roulette’ unless the airport testing is adopted. He proposed that travellers are tested on arrival before going into quarantine. They would have a second test five or eight days later and – if clear – go back to normal life. In their joint letter, travel bosses argued testing has ‘the potential to be a game-changing additional tool for authorities to safely open up travel without quarantine from countries or regions deemed higher risk, such as the United States’.
The group also called for blanket quarantine restrictions on arrivals from whole countries to be replaced by regional ones. They wrote: ‘This would allow for quarantine-free travel to unaffected parts of a country, including not just Spain but other key markets for trade and tourism like the United States and Canada.’
The industry leaders wrote that the introduction of quarantine measures for Spain at the weekend had been the ‘latest significant blow to a sector which now risks being permanently scarred’.
They added: ‘We fully support the objective of maintaining public health and supporting travel only where safe to do so. However, the lack of a more targeted approach to quarantine and travel advice will simply further damage the travel and hospitality sector by creating uncertainty.’
Yesterday a four-nation meeting was held to discuss whether to extend quarantine rules.
Officials say a decision, to apply across all the UK nations, will be made in a few days.
Latest figures from Spain yesterday showed 1,153 new virus infections in the past 24 hours, down 700 from the previous day.
Ministers are understood to be considering if airport testing could be used to ease quarantine restrictions, but sources last night insisted there were no imminent changes planned.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden yesterday warned: ‘It [coronavirus] can incubate over a period of time, so there’s not a silver bullet of just testing people immediately at the border.’