UK: Heathrow boss urges plan to restart flights between low-risk countries

The boss of Heathrow has urged the government to develop plans to restart travel between “low-risk countries” as global lockdown measures are eased. John Holland-Kaye, CE of the busiest airport in Britain, said the UK should adopt a risk-based approach to flights and warned that the UK economy will suffer if blanket travel restrictions continue. He also backed the idea of “immunity passports” to allow people who have already had Covid-19 to travel more freely. Heathrow’s passenger numbers plunged 97% in April, from an average of 250,000 a day to between 5,000 and 6,000 since lockdown. Holland-Kaye told Sky News: “This is a very minimal level of traffic, and I think that as long as the quarantine [travel ban] is in place, that will continue at those low levels. The quarantine cannot be in place for more than a relatively short amount of time if we are going to get the economy moving again. This is where we are urging the government to have a common international standard, working with other countries so that traffic can start to flow in a normal way between low-risk countries.”<br/>