Airlines hit out at UK quarantine measures

While much of Europe starts to open up for the summer, with the hope of sparking economic recovery now that Covid-19 cases are falling, the UK risks remaining behind. Home secretary Priti Patel prompted criticism from the travel and tourism industry and from senior conservative MPs when she confirmed on Wednesday that Britain would impose quarantine measures from next Monday and require travellers from abroad to self-isolate for 14 days. The UK’s GBP22bn-a-year aviation industry has warned that this will add to the crisis that has already led airlines to seek emergency government loans to survive the near-universal collapse in air travel. The hospitality industry has said the measures could put 1.2m jobs at risk. Jozsef Varadi, CE of Wizz Air, has called Britain’s determination to press ahead with quarantine for airline passengers pointless and unnecessarily “harsh”. He pointed out that many countries were exploring alternatives such as health certificates to prove travellers had been virus-free for 72 hours or more. In other parts of the world, Singapore and China have established a bilateral arrangement that begins next week. Travellers must submit applications sponsored by government agencies or companies they are visiting in advance and take a test.<br/>