Thousands of jobs at risk unless UK travel rules changed, say airlines

The travel industry has called for ministers to tear up the UK’s Covid traffic light and PCR testing rules as figures reveal their “devastating impact” on overseas flights and holiday bookings in peak season. Bookings for holidays abroad this summer were down 83% on 2019, according to data from the Travel Association (ABTA), with half of travel companies reporting no increase in bookings compared with last summer, despite the vaccination programme. ABTA said thousands of jobs in the sector were at risk, with seven in 10 companies planning to make redundancies once the furlough ends. Heathrow and Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which both reported huge falls in summer traffic, joined the calls for a simplified two-tier system for international travel. The London hub airport was the busiest in Europe but is now ranked 10th after a 71% drop in August traffic compared with pre-pandemic levels. MAG’s passenger numbers across Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports were down 68% on August 2019. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said at the weekend that he wanted to scrap PCR day two tests for fully vaccinated arrivals “as soon as I possibly can”, after reports that officials were working on plans to allow the change, potentially in time for half-term holiday bookings. However, easyJet said it had yet to see any discernible impact of Javid’s announcement on bookings. A spokesperson said the airline would continue to argue for the scrapping of all tests for vaccinated travellers visiting low-risk countries.<br/>