Wizz Air boss slams 'bizarre' quarantine plan

A blanket 14-day quarantine for nearly all passengers coming to the UK will cause  immense economic damage and slow the recovery, the boss of Wizz Air has said.

Airlines are being forced to navigate a maze of different rules following a breakdown in international unity, József Váradi warned, with decisions no longer focused on what is best for business or public health - leaving many of thousands of jobs at risk across the world.

Britain's quarantine rule has sparked near-universal condemnation from carriers, hospitality firms and business leaders, who claim it will trigger widespread suffering and there is little evidence it coronavirus infection rates will come down as a result.

Labelling the plan "bizarre", Mr Váradi said: "I am not sure what it achieves. We are flying to 45 countries and there are no two countries imposing the same measure. It is all over the place. It has become a zoo. It is hugely political and it lacks central coordination.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps have defended the Government’s plans to force people arriving in the UK to self-isolate for a fortnight from Monday.

“We owe it to the thousands who have died,” they wrote in The Telegraph, adding that the measures would allow “the tourism industry will be up and running faster”.

There are a few exceptions, such as for truckers and farmhands, but many organisations claim these do not go far enough. Finance chiefs warned that unless business travel can resume more widely, London's role as a global hub will be diminished.

Catherine McGuinness, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, said: “The current quarantine proposals will have a major impact on a range of sectors, including the City’s financial and professional services firms as well as our cultural institutions.

"It is difficult to understand why seasonal agricultural workers, truck drivers and athletes are being exempted from the rules but service sector staff are not.

"Restrictions which seem arbitrary rather than consistent undermine confidence and will hold us back."

The plans were also criticised by Simon Smith, boss of one of the world’s biggest travel catering firms SSP which owns outlets including Upper Crust.

He said: “I don’t think that the quarantine proposals will be conducive to encouraging the fastest recovery in the travel sector.

“I want to get people back to work. I want to get the economy going and I want to play my part in that. So hopefully the Government will support that with bilateral agreements with [other] countries.”

Mr Váradi, whose airline’s market value has overtaken that of easyJet in recent weeks, questioned how ministers could possibly claim that quarantine will lead to a faster recovery.

He said: “Unfortunately the UK has become a bit of an oddity because the whole of Europe has started moving in another direction. So many countries have announced easing of restrictions and allowing people to freely move and the UK is going in another direction.”

Wizz Air reported a 30pc jump in profits to €345m (£307m) for the 12 months to the end of March but said it could not provide guidance for this year to due to the pandemic. Shares rose 7.5pc.

The quarantine, first revealed by The Telegraph in April, left aviation bosses fuming over its impact on the travel industry. 

Sources say their protests fell on deaf ears as the Department of Health and Foreign Office overruled sympathy from Mr Shapps and transport officials.

Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, has belittled the plans from the outset.

Michael O’Leary, chief executive, said last month: “[When we] talk to ministers and civil servants at the higher level in the UK Government, none of them believe that the quarantine is implementable. It is bonkers - it has no credibility.”

A spokesman for Ryanair said on Wednesday: "At a time when the medical science across Europe, in countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany, have safely removed all inbound visitor restrictions, the imposition of this completely defective quarantine in the UK is utterly useless and a total waste of time.”