The Chief Executive of Stansted’s parent company today called for an end to “sluggish, illogical and chaotic” approach to quarantine by the UK government and called for the introduction of a regional approach to travel restrictions.
According to Charlie Cornish, chief executive of Stansted’s parent Manchester Airport Group, passenger numbers at the airport this Bank Holiday weekend expected to be less than a third of volumes seen last year, following quarantine rules on a number of popular UK holiday destinations including France and Spain.
Cornish joined calls for the UK government to apply a more targeted approach to travel bans, particularly given many of the Spanish destinations most popular with UK tourists are islands located a long distance from Spain’s peak areas of coronavirus infection.
“Catalonia is closer to Chelmsford than it is to Gran Canaria,” Cornish said, repeating calls for regional approach to travel restrictions ahead of Cabinet meeting expected this week
“It is evident in the tens of thousands of job losses that have already been announced and the millions of holidays already cancelled.,
If reports are to be believed, our government was due to debate taking a more realistic and passenger-friendly approach to quarantine decisions on Monday at its Covid Committee. But this meeting didn’t happen, and we hear it’s now due to happen today. It’s not the first time a critical decision in this area has been put off, with no credible explanation for the delay,” he said.
“Indeed, throughout the pandemic there has been no evidence of any recognition from the government of the need to protect the travel industry and enable it to recover from what is undoubtedly the biggest crisis it has ever faced,” he added.
Cornish said the aviation sector collectively supports around 2 million UK jobs and contrasted the UK governments approach with that of Germany which has secured EU State Aid approval, in order to compensate airports for lost revenue and protect their futures.
“The failure to recognise the need for direct financial support was disappointing to say the least, but perhaps not surprising when you consider our government already places its airports at a competitive disadvantage by levying some of the highest passenger taxes in the world.
But the impact of this decision has been amplified many times over by its sluggish, chaotic and illogical approach to travel restrictions, an area where we have watched other nations move quickly and decisively while our government has remained in its own decision-making lockdown,” said Cornish.