Calls to test airport arrivals for Covid as Croatia is added to quarantine list
Everyone arriving in Scotland from abroad must be tested for Covid-19 to cut quarantine from 14 to eight days and avert the “imminent decimation” of the travel industry, agents have demanded.
The bid follows similar calls from the country’s major airports, which travel agents said had fallen on deaf ears.
It comes as justice secretary Humza Yousaf confirmed travellers from Portugal to Scotland would be exempt from quarantine requirements from tomorrow. But arrivals from Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago will have to self-isolate for 14 days.
Mr Yousaf said a “significant rise in the number of cases of coronavirus” meant the restrictions would be put in place from 4am tomorrow.
“We cannot emphasise enough that if people choose to travel abroad, they must be aware that quarantine requirements may change while they are away,” he said.
“The same can be said for the rules within the country or territory people are travelling to.”
He added: “As I have said previously, we do not make these decisions lightly, but suppressing the virus and protecting public health is vital.”
The Scottish Passenger Agents Association (SPAA), which represents travel agents, said airport Covid-19 tests would help “rescue the travel industry which faces being wiped out”.
The body claimed testing would reduce the need for those arriving from countries such as Spain and France to quarantine for two weeks.
President Joanne Dooey said: “We’re calling for testing at airports because of the importance of travel to the Scottish economy.
“Outbound travellers are worth £1.7 billion to Scotland and outbound travel sustains more than 26,000 jobs.
“We understand there is a cost associated with testing. However, the cost to the UK and Scottish governments of the failure of the travel sector in Scotland with the associated job losses would utterly dwarf the investment in airport testing.
“It seems paradoxical that the majority of drive-through Covid-19 testing centres in
Scotland (four out of six) are based at airports – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Prestwick – but there is no passenger testing at these locations.”
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “We’ve put these points to the Scottish Government many times without any meaningful response.
“It is vital we find some way to move on from the ill-thought out and badly implemented quarantine scheme that is crippling our industry and the industries that aviation supports.”