Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye has reiterated calls for a pre-departure testing scheme to ease current travel bans in a letter to the prime minister.
Holland-Kaye urged Boris Johnson to set out an urgent “roadmap” for the UK’s vaccination programme as part of a three-stage plan to reopen borders and rebuild the aviation sector.
The regime would initially focus on restarting cargo supplies to countries that have implemented travel bans, after which a “risk-based approach to international connections with key trading markets should be resumed, with pre-departure testing in place for ‘high risk’ countries”.
The model outlined by Holland-Kaye in the letter would involve a PCR test taken within three days of departure, with a rapid test taken at the airport to “add a layer of protection”.
The letter said: “Following your announcement on Saturday detailing Tier 4 restrictions for London and the South East due to the emergence of a new Covid-19, international travel out of Heathrow has effectively been stopped as around 60 countries have closed their borders to passengers from the UK.
“While limited and slow progress on introducing testing for passengers has been made, the dramatic deterioration of the situation means that the government must not delay any longer and – like many countries around the world which require pre-departures tests for aviation – the UK needs to quickly and unilaterally introduce this model, to demonstrate to the world it is serious about protecting their borders as much its own.”
It added: “Whilst of course we support steps to contain this new strain, the decision to restrict international travel again will further damage the national economy and jeopardise jobs at a time when the UK is looking to rebuild and increase links with the rest of the world after Brexit.”
The Heathrow chief’s letter to the prime minister was echoed by the Airport Operators Association, which made similar calls to transport secretary Grant Shapps.
In a separate letter, AOA chief executive Karen Dee called for “clear communications regarding travel rules, for the government to cover airports’ operational losses during this period and for the introduction of mass rapid testing, removing the need for quarantine”.
The AOA added: “Whilst the work of the Global Travel Taskforce was welcomed, it was always the first step towards quarantine-free air travel. AOA also fully backs Heathrow airport’s letter to the prime minister regarding the damaging impact of the new Tier 4 set of restrictions and ban on UK originating passengers by more than 60 countries.”