Leading UK airline Managements are asking the Prime Minister to give them the green light for international travel within weeks, reports state.
The Managements of BA, EasyJet, Jet2.com, Loganair, Ryanair, Tui and Virgin Atlantic as well as trade body Airlines UK wrote to Boris requesting for the ban on non-essential travel which is in place until May 17th, to be lifted.
When the current stringent restrictions are lifted, the UK will adopt a risk-based traffic light system for international travel.
Airline chiefs said in their letter, published by The Sun, they recognized restriction-free universal travel may not be possible by May 17.
They stated that they are confident that they are capable and ready to restart safe travel in May and that there can be no economic recovery without aviation. They also added that passengers who were vaccinated should not be subjected to travel restrictions and that testing could reduce the barriers to travel. Only high risk areas could be subject to more stringent measures.
The PM is expected to on Monday outline the government’s approach for easing restrictions on foreign travel when its global travel task force reports on April 12.
The traffic light system would mean- Green Category Countries – no isolation requirement, although pre-departure and post-arrival tests will still be needed.
The ‘red’ and ‘amber’ restrictions would remain as they are now – with the requirement to enter quarantine or self-isolation upon return.
The government would base the rating on levels of the traffic light system as follows
- The proportion of the country’s population that has been vaccinated
- Rates of COVID-19 infections
- New emerging variants of the virus
- The ability to access reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing
Besides the airlines other Tourism dependent Businesses are keen to restart inbound business from the UK. Bookings to Greece and Turkey are already in a surge in numbers.
Portugal and Malta, are expected to be in the green category, and are likely to be the best bets for Britons this summer along with Maldives, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and the USA.
