Travel restrictions: Airlines call for UK to fall into line on quarantine

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Opposition to the Government’s travel quarantine plans is growing ahead of its introduction next week, with a senior member of IATA, the global air travel body, asking why the UK’s strategy is at odds with the rest of Europe.

Rafael Schvartzman, regional vice president of Europe for IATA, said the holiday opportunities for millions of people rely on the UK Government having a “clear and transparent” mechanism for reviewing the quarantine, set to be introduced on June 8 for all international arrivals and reconsidered every three weeks.

“With the rest of Europe looking to move away from their quarantines and lockdowns, the question has to be asked why the UK government is now moving in the opposite direction,” he said.

“More than 1.5 million British jobs are supported by aviation; £100billion in GDP is generated by air travel in the UK. This measure puts that immense contribution at considerable risk, and well as the foreign holiday opportunities for millions of people.”

Today, more than 200 travel companies wrote to the Home Office to ask them to reconsider the quarantine measures, while UK airlines have written to the Department for Transport with a list of 45 countries they believe should be exempt from the isolation period.

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