Airlines cull UK flights, while last-minute private jet bookings spike

Airlines have begun slashing capacity on UK routes as the country prepares to enter a second coronavirus lockdown that will outlaw all non-business trips. Though it’s still unclear how the English ban will be enforced, carriers will cut seating by 70% in coming days, based on scheduling estimates from travel-data provider. EasyJet is scrapping all but a handful of trips to locations including the Spanish island of Tenerife, Portugal’s Algarve, and cities such as Amsterdam, according to its website. Private-jet operators, by contrast, are seeing a jump in last-minute bookings from wealthy families desperate to beat the lockdown, with charter specialist Air Partner reporting a “sharp surge” in interest from people based in the UK but with second homes in the Canary Islands. The region’s air-traffic manager Eurocontrol meanwhile warned that passenger numbers won’t fully recover for many years without an effective Covid-19 vaccine. Without an effective vaccine, Eurocontrol estimates it may take 10 years to recover to last year's levels “The impact of this sudden lockdown will ripple through consumer confidence for the rest of the winter season,” John Grant, a senior analyst at OAG, said Wednesday. “Unless there is finally some intervention from the U.K. government then the future will remain bleak for probably most of 2021, based on the damage that will be done in the next four weeks.” Britain will impose the travel ban from midnight tonight until Dec. 2 as part of a wider lockdown aimed at stemming a resurgence of Covid-19. Some airlines will cease all flights, while others, like Dubai-based Emirates and American Airlines Group , will likely continue flying less frequently to their hub airports, Grant said. The IATA said in a webinar Wednesday that the UK restrictions will be “extremely damaging” for the country’s travel industry. Bookings shot up 112% when quarantine requirements for people returning from the Canary Islands were lifted, but the lockdown will slam the brakes on any recovery, according to the trade group. “Health is a priority but we need to be looking at ways of preserving jobs,” IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said in the briefing. “A by-product of these measures is going to be that jobs will be lost in the travel and tourism sector.”<br/>