Travel industry crisis as airports expect as few as 20% of normal passenger numbers

The scale of Britain’s travel industry crisis has been laid bare by figures showing the country’s major airports will have only a fraction of their normal passenger numbers on what should be one of the busiest weekends of the year. Manchester airport will handle less than 40% of the flights of two years ago, while Gatwick – once the world’s busiest airport of its kind – will have a fifth of its usual number of travellers in August. Industry bosses blame uncertainty caused by the government’s botched traffic light plan, as exclusive polling for The Independent shows just 12% of Britons still intend to go abroad this summer. Research by The Independent reveals that even though vaccinated passengers can avoid quarantine when returning from amber list countries, a significant resurgence in demand for international travel has not materialised – leaving Gatwick and the other UK airports handling a small fraction of previous levels of passengers. Paul Charles, CE of the PC Agency, said: “The majority of the travel sector remains deeply unbusy. Consumers are nervous of the government’s poor quality traffic lights system and worried that they will be caught out while overseas, at great cost. We need to see governments collaborating more on opening up travel and enabling the fully jabbed to access areas without fear of quarantine.” As a result of the near-total absence of inbound demand and the crisis in consumer confidence, airlines have cancelled thousands of flights across the summer season. <br/>