Quarantine: UK policy is ‘sluggish, illogical and chaotic,’ says top airport boss

One of the UK’s top airport bosses, has condemned the government’s quarantine strategy as “sluggish, illogical and chaotic”. Charlie Cornish, CE of Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which includes Stansted and East Midlands, made a blistering attack on the government’s failure to bringing a more nuanced policy ahead of government decisions on self-isolation for arriving travellers. At present passengers from most countries arriving in the UK must go straight home and self-isolate for two weeks. With arrivals from Spain, France, Croatia and North African nations required to quarantine, passenger numbers over the August bank holiday weekend are forecast to be down about 70 per cent on a year ago. Airlines and airports are calling for some regions of popular countries to be granted exemption from quarantine if their coronavirus infection rates are low enough. Cornish said: “The impact of Covid-19 – and quarantine restrictions – on the travel industry is clear for all to see. It is evident in the tens of thousands of job losses that have already been announced and the millions of holidays already cancelled.”<br/>