Quarantine measures at borders “will kill travel”, according to Emirates vice president Rob Broere, who suggested the UK government would do better to test arriving passengers for Covid-19.
Broere, head of industry change at Emirates and chairman of airline association Iata’s travel standards board, said: “It’s key that we start getting movement.
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“We fly to New Zealand where there is no infection anymore and we fly to the UK where there is quarantine.
“The UK has one of the highest infection rates. Is the problem [due to] people flying in?”
He warned: “Quarantine will kill travel totally other than for repatriation.”
Broere told an International Tourism & Investment Conference (ITIC) online summit on Financial Strategies for Recovery: “We need [Covid-19] tests [on passengers] before departure and on arrival.”
He advocated “a scheme where a test in your home county is recognised on arrival – a test done by an organisation approved by government and visible to the government of the country you fly to”.
Broere argued: “A country like New Zealand which has no infection needs to find a way to prevent infection coming in.
“The cost of testing is going down and people are willing to pay for it.”
Describing the health measures taken by Emirates, he said: “We put a series of health protocols in place. Everybody wears gloves and masks. We provide everybody with a health kit. It looks a bit like a hospital – that is unfortunate.
“We reduced the amount of interaction between staff and passengers. We don’t allow significant amounts of hand luggage to speed up boarding.
“Then we apply social distancing if planes can handle it. Right now it’s not a problem. It might be a challenge when we get to 50% capacity.”
But he noted: “There are cultural challenges. On some flights our ground staff spend their whole time continually putting people two metres apart. Social distancing is not part of some people’s culture.”
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