EasyJet, BA and Heathrow airport write open letter begging government for ‘nuanced’ quarantine approach

EasyJet, BA, Tui and Heathrow Airport were among 47 travel industry signatories to send an open letter to the government calling for a more “nuanced” approached when it comes to its quarantine policy. Airlines, airports and tour operators came together to urge Boris Johnson to drop blanket travel restrictions following the sudden removal of Spain from the Department for Transport’s (DfT) quarantine-exempt list. After much confusion, the Canary and Balearic Islands were also removed from both the DfT list and the Foreign Office’s separate list of destinations where its blanket warning against all travel no longer applies. The letter claimed there was “no obvious rationale” behind the move; the current rate of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the Canary Islands is around two, compared to the UK’s 14. It also warned that current government policy would leave the travel industry “permanently scarred” and that a much more targeted approach, based on testing and the “rapid introduction” of “regional” travel corridors, was needed. This latter measure would allow Brits to travel to unaffected parts of Spain, as well as areas of countries such as Canada and the US with low Covid-19 rates, without having to quarantine on their return.<br/>