Rolling quarantines will cost the UK ‘87,000 more jobs this year’

The UK is facing a £4.6bn hit to its economy if Boris Johnson keeps travel quarantines in place until Christmas, airline leaders have warned.

An additional 87,000 jobs will be lost in the coming months, global trade body IATA has estimated.

Boss Alexandre de Juniac urged the Prime Minister to introduce a testing regime to “avoid apocalyptic unemployment that is sure to devastate society and the economy”.

Earlier this week he threw his weight behind The Telegraph's Test4Travel campaign.

The warnings came as one London borough warned a third of residents are at risk of losing their jobs because of the crisis in aviation. Hounslow, which is heavily dependent on Heathrow for employment, said the borough was facing a £189m hit to its economy. Major airlines have shed thousands of jobs since the start of the year as flights dried up.

Separately, the bosses of British Airways, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic launched a fresh appeal to Mr Johnson, urging him to “announce and implement” a testing regime by the end of September.

The Government has rejected repeated calls for a testing regime. Although Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has indicated testing could be used to reduce the time travellers need to stay in quarantine, the Prime Minister has warned it could give Britons a “false sense of security”.

The letter from airlines bosses, co-ordinated by Airlines UK, also called for a holiday on air passenger duty - a levy on travellers - and an extension of the job retention scheme for the aviation sector.

IATA, which represents major airlines from around the world, supported calls for APD to be suspended.

It also criticised the Government’s infection rate threshold for removing countries from the UK’s safe list.

IATA said: “The present UK methodology for calculating which states should be subject to quarantine is opaque, but a frequently quoted metric is the threshold of 20 infections per 100,000 of population. This level is not aligned with other European states.

“And if the UK were to agree to adopt a metric that was harmonised with other European countries it would give passengers greater predictability to plan their journeys, and give greater flexibility to maintain air connectivity.”

The pleas for help came as ministers were warned about the challenge of shipping a coronavirus vaccine around the world in the future. Delivering a single dose to the world’s 7.8bn population will require the equivalent of 8,000 jumbo jets, aviation bosses said.