EasyJet CEO urges UK to further ease European travel restrictions in ‘a safe way’

Johan Lundgren, CEO of British airline EasyJet, is urging the UK government to further ease restrictions on European travel due to progress on vaccination rates. “We never anticipated it was going to be, you know, a straightforward recovery. We always knew there was going to be bumps along the way,” Lundgren said Monday. “But clearly with the successful rollout for the vaccination, we believe that much of European travel could be opening up in a safe way.” While the UK’s high rate of vaccination has significantly weakened the link between recorded infections and people becoming severely sick from the disease, the country is seeing a spike in Covid cases largely attributed to the delta variant, which originated in India. That prompted PM Boris Johnson to push back England’s next reopening phase to July 19 from the planned June 21. In response to that delay, the U.K.’s travel industry held a “day of action” Wednesday calling on the government to relax certain restrictions, especially for fully vaccinated people, in time for the summer months. <br/>