Angry BA boycotts Patel summit over quarantine plan for arrivals

Charles Hymas Oliver Gill BRITISH Airways was embroiled in a row with the Government yesterday af- ter boycotting an industry summit over Priti Patel’s quarantine plans.

Britain’s largest airline failed to turn up amid claims by industry sources that it believed the quarantine to be unworkable, economically damaging and the meeting a “waste of time.”

However, Government sources retorted: “It’s a shame that BA don’t want to directly make their case to the Home Secretary and the aviation minister. Clearly they are not serious about working to get Britain moving again.” And a senior insider said: “BA has taken their bat and ball home.”

BA officially declined to comment. The row overshadowed the meeting yesterday between Ms Patel, Kelly Tolhurst, the aviation minister, and 24 aviation, maritime and rail bosses to discuss their differences over quarantine, easing of restrictions and “travel corridors” to low-risk countries.

Quarantine, due to begin on Monday, will require all international arrivals, including Britons, to self-isolate for 14 days. It will be reviewed in three weeks, during which the aviation industry wants “air bridges” introduced.

John Holland-kaye, Heathrow Airport’s chief executive, said before the meeting that quarantine posed “a real existential threat” to the aviation industry, which dealt with 40 per cent of the UK’S exports and supply chain.

“If we don’t have a plan from the Government on how we are going to reopen the economy those jobs are at risk,” he said. “So far we have seen warm words but we haven’t seen action.” He warned:

“We are all running out of cash very quickly. Unless we can see light at the end of the tunnel, we are going to start making decisions to cut capacity, to cut jobs and that will have a devastating impact on livelihoods.”

Ms Patel defended quarantine, saying it was necessary to prevent a second wave of the virus. She urged chiefs to work with the Government to “make the new public health measures work, safeguard our recovery and allow us to move forward more quickly.”

Industry sources said bosses at BA’S parent company were angered by Ms Tolhurst singling out BA in the Commons on Wednesday over its planned job cuts. BA plans up to 12,000 redundancies, but Virgin Atlantic and Ryanir have each announced around 3,000 job cuts and easyjet plans to axe up to 4,500 positions.

George Morgan-grenville, the boss of travel company Red Savannah, who is leading a campaign against quarantine, said: “The Home Secretary seems completely immune to our needs and we are none the wiser as to the science behind the rationale for quarantine.”