Heathrow tells UK to change travel rules as passenger slump continues

Britain's biggest airport Heathrow said on Monday passenger numbers were still 71% lower in August compared to the same month before the COVID-19 pandemic, as it demanded that the government change its travel rules to help the sector recover. Heathrow blamed the complicated, changing and expensive rules for those arriving in the United Kingdom for Britain's much slower travel recovery versus competitors, pushing it down to 10th busiest European airport, from its top spot in 2019. Expectations are growing that there will be a simplification of those travel rules, after Health Minister Sajid Javid said on Sunday that he wanted to "get rid of" expensive PCR tests for travellers as soon as possible. read more British PM Boris Johnson will this week set out his plans to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the winter months. Heathrow said that it would favour a two-tier system with destination countries rated either low risk or high risk, with the latter still requiring hotel quarantine. <br/>