The UK Airport Operators Association (AOA) has warned that Summer 2021 could be as bad or worse than Summer 2020 for the country’s airports if the UK government continues to take, what it calls an “overly cautious approach to reopening international travel”. The current UK green list represents only 1.7% of 2019 passenger numbers, and in summer 2020, there were significantly more countries on the travel corridor list that allowed passenger numbers to peak at 22% of 2019 levels in August 2020.
Even with the more liberal travel approach in 2020, UK airports lost out on £2.6bn revenue between April to September 2020. With passenger numbers expected to be at best similar but most likely worse, the AOA warned that airports stand to lose at least another £2.6bn in revenue again this year.
“The Government’s overly cautious approach to reopening travel has real-world consequences for the 1.6m jobs in the UK aviation and tourism industries that rely on aviation having a meaningful restart,” says Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association. “Unless the Government makes a meaningful restart of aviation possible by extending the green list at the next review, moving to rapid and affordable tests for returning travellers and following the examples of the EU and the US by reducing restrictions on fully vaccinated passengers, aviation is in for an extremely difficult summer.
“Airports have suffered blow after blow since the start of the pandemic. If the Government decides it cannot reopen travel more meaningfully, then they should stand ready to give substantial financial compensation to airports and others in aviation and tourism. As airports remain open for critical services, support should include operational costs, such as policing, air traffic and CAA regulatory costs, and extending business rate relief in full until the end of the tax year.”