EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren has questioned how coordinated travel’s restart will be around Europe and how quickly the EU and UK will introduce digital Covid-status certification.
Lundgren warned that manual processes are likely to be place for checking travellers’ vaccination and test certificates and said: “I don’t trust how coordinated it will be across Europe.”
Speaking as easyJet issued a trading update for the six months to March, Lundgren said: “There has been a lack of coordination across countries.”
The EU has plans to fast-track development of a digital green certificate to show the Covid-status of holders and has promised to deliver this by June. At least 13 member states have discussed coordinating the certificate’s use for intra-EU travellers.
The UK government is also reviewing Covid-status certification and plans to make both digital and paper certificates available.
But referring to the EU’s plans for a digital green certificate, Lundgren said: “I’m not so confident that will be rapidly implemented.”
He suggested: “It will probably be necessary that there will be manual checks [of paper certificates] and different processes in different countries and that will be difficult operationally.
“No doubt it will be a challenge. There will be manual processes in place and it will not be as slick as we hope.”
Lundgren, who is current chairman of the Airlines for Europe (A4E) group said: “I’m working on that at Airlines for Europe.”
He said easyJet would operate only 20% of its 2019 capacity over the course of the three months to June, but added: “We expect to ramp up in the fourth quarter [July to September].”
Lundgren insisted: “I still believe there will be a strong summer.”