Britain’s biggest airlines and tour operators have accused Boris Johnson of a “haphazard and disproportionate” approach to travel that has “unnecessarily disrupted” the Christmas holiday plans of millions of Britons.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, they said that he has broken his promises to fix the “rip-off” PCR testing for travellers that exposes them to charges of up to ￡399 and presided over a quarantine hotel shambles where customers have been double booked and forced to pay twice.
“We and our customers feel sincerely let down, having believed a more pragmatic, evidence-led approach to travel, in line with the rest of the world, had been achieved and agreed by all concerned just a few months ago,” said the chief executives of the airlines, among them British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair and Tui.
“Instead, the layering of additional travel restrictions, introduced at short notice without consultation or discernible strategy, have disrupted Christmas plans and severely undermined customer sentiment just before the crucial Christmas and New Year booking season – up to 30 per cent of tickets are sold.”
As revealed by The Telegraph last week, ministers are to consider plans this week to replace quarantine for red list countries with self-isolation at home for fully vaccinated travellers, but are still expected to retain testing pre-departure and on day two.
However, the airlines want the Government to go further and scrap all testing for fully vaccinated travellers when it reviews the restrictions on December 20. At present, all arrivals have to do a lateral flow test before departure and a PCR swab on or before day two of their entry to the UK.
They also called for an emergency aid package to bridge the industry through the crisis as the only major sector subject to enhanced restrictions and, in effect, prevented from trading.
“As leaders of UK airlines, we are deeply concerned about the haphazard and disproportionate approach by government to travel restrictions following the emergence of the omicron variant,” they said.
“Travel has been singled out with the introduction of disproportionate restrictions; especially as there are no equivalent domestic measures. Further, pre-departure and upon-arrival testing clearly add very little value to our Covid protection, but unnecessarily disrupts Christmas for families and as well as businesses while severely damaging the UK travel industry.
“Only the UK requires pre-departure and post-arrival PCR tests, irrespective of vaccination status. Whilst we have heard much talk of cracking down on the ‘rip-off’ testing regime – charging up to ￡399 for a PCR test – we’ve seen precious little action, despite repeated promises.”
They added: “We have also seen immediate problems with red list arrivals, with many customers booking hotels which either were not ready or had been double booked, requiring them to rebook and pay again. Many people are stranded abroad through no fault of their own, due to a policy that cannot be executed properly.
“We urgently request you meet with us, to understand the problems that we and our customers are now facing because of these measures, which the Transport Secretary himself admitted risked ‘killing off’ the travel industry. We urge you to act now to prevent this from happening.”
The chief executives and managing directors that signed the letter were Andrew Flintham of Tui, Sean Doyle of British Airways, Eddie Wilson of Ryanair, Johan Lundgren of easyJet, Shai Weiss of Virgin Atlantic, Steve Heapy of Jet2, and Tim Alderslade of Airlines UK.
A Government spokesman said: “Our top priority is protecting public health and we continue to keep our travel measures under review. We recognise that these temporary restrictions are challenging for the travel and tourism industry.
“That is why businesses have been able to draw from an unprecedented ￡350 billion package of government support since the start of the pandemic, including around ￡8 billion for the air transport sector.”