Airlines call on Johnson for green light for take-off within weeks

Bosses from leading UK airlines have urged the prime minister to give them the green light for international travel within weeks.

The chief executives of British Airways, easy Jet, Jet2.com, Loganair, Ryanair, Tui and Virgin Atlantic as well as trade body Airlines UK wrote to Boris Johnson as ministers made it clear the ban on foreign travel will be in place until at least May 17.

When it is lifted it will be replaced by a riskbased “traffic light” system with red, amber and green ratings for countries around the world.

Airline chiefs said in their letter, published by The Sun and seen by the PA news agency, they recognised restriction free universal travel may not be possible by May 17.

“However, there can be no economic recovery without aviation, and we are confident we now have the tools to enable a safe and meaningful restart to travel in May – allowing us to return to our job of reuniting friends and family, supporting trade and business and allowing Britons to enjoy a wellearned break again,” the letter stated.

It added: “We believe vaccinated passengers should not be subject to travel restrictions and that testing can also reduce the barriers to travel including for areas that are considered to present some risk.

“Only very high-risk areas would be subject to more stringent measures.”

Mr Johnson is today expected to outline the government’s approach for easing restrictions on foreign travel.

Foreign travel remains banned until at least May 17.