Heathrow, airlines tell UK to open up travel as hopes rise for US visitors

London’s Heathrow Airport and Britain’s main airlines urged the UK to open up travel to vaccinated passengers or face more job losses, as hopes rose that travellers from the US could be given the green light this week. Heathrow CE John Holland-Kaye said Britain could exempt fully vaccinated US citizens from quarantine in the coming days, in what would be a huge boost to the country’s aviation industry which continues to be plagued by uncertainty. Strict rules which the government has previously altered with little notice has meant that Britain’s travel sector remains in the doldrums while Europe’s has partially recovered. Airlines UK warned more aviation jobs would go if the government did not make changes at its next travel review expected later this week. It wants quarantine to be scrapped for fully vaccinated travellers from the United States and the European Union, with more countries added to Britain’s green list for low risk travel. Holland-Kaye noted the EU had opened up unilaterally with the United States, adding: “There’s no reason why the UK shouldn’t do the same. I think that could happen this week.” Heathrow said Britain’s travel restrictions were suppressing trade volumes and traveller demand, pushing its cumulative pandemic losses to $4b.<br/>