Jet2holidays chief executive Steve Heapy believes consumer confidence in international travel will take a “massive hit” after the decision to axe Portugal from the green list yesterday.
Heapy said the government “owe it” to the industry to be transparent about the criteria for its traffic light destinations after the announcement yesterday, when no further countries were added to the green list and seven were moved to the red list.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, he warned that taking holidays to Portugal off sale would be a “massive headache” to some of Jet2’s competitors, but pointed out that Jet2holidays had already pushed back its restart to June 24, before further delaying its resumption to July 1 after yesterday’s news.
“We always suspected that the start-up would be very messy,” he added, noting “big empty-leg costs” for flying aircraft just one way of a journey.
“The government said the reason for the framework last time was so we didn’t have a year like last year, where we’re in and out, like they Hokey Cokey. And now we are.
“Three weeks after starting operations to Portugal, airlines have now got to stop and pull everyone out. People not having been away for two years, wanted a little bit of sunshine, and then little bit of return to normality, and now they’ve been pulled home.”
Heapy said customer confidence will take a “massive hit” in response to the government’s decision.
He said: “The image isn’t great for the industry. We’re going to live with the consequences of this for a long time. People just aren’t going to want to book because they’re going to think, ‘I was going to book, but I might get pulled home early like those poor people in Albufeira’ who have got to come home or – for a family of four – face a £6,000 bill for stating in a Travelodge for two weeks.”
But Heapy said Jet2 “has to be confident” about its new restart date of July 1. “If we’re not confident we would be committing the company to ramping up costs unnecessarily,” he added. “Some of it’s hope, but I would hope the government will realise the Nepal variant and these other variants aren’t perhaps as bad as they thought and return to the roadmap.
“I know they want to do the big unlocking on June 21, domestically. And, if we carry on reasonably successfully there’s a chance that some foreign travel could be allowed by the beginning of July.”
But he said: “My frustration is enormous at the moment. I just feel like [the UK is] in a rudderless ship. I think we’re a country run by scientists, and if a group of people is given power they don’t want to let that go.”
Heapy said he found out the green list decision “via the rumour mill”, which was “frustrating” because he had colleagues, hotel partners and travel agents asking him for information he didn’t have, despite being involved in the Global Travel Taskforce.
“That’s disappointing,” he added, saying that it was also “equally disappointing” that the government confirmed spending “enormous amounts” on border controls for people arriving from red list countries and “not putting any effort into handling green countries”.
He said “something’s got to change” to help boost the economy and people’s mental health, saying the information given by government in regards to its traffic light decision is “not good enough”.