The boss of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays has credited industry lobbying efforts for encouraging the government to take “a step in the right direction” with the easing of travel curbs this week.
But he insisted companies and individuals must maintain pressure on MPs to ensure travel “returns to normal” with the lifting of all testing requirements and the removal of onerous passenger locator forms.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly Webcast, Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy said he was not surprised by the government’s decision to remove post-arrival PCR requirements as well as pre-departure tests, having been in close contact over recent weeks.
“As an industry we have several meetings with the governments over the last few days and weeks,” he said. “It’s not something we shout about, but we do have regular conversations with the government, both as Jet2.com and as part of industry groups.
“We’d asked for the removal of all testing, and that didn’t happen (but) I think they’ve made a sensible compromise.”
Despite the positive outcome, Heapy insisted society needed to learn to live with Covid and said the industry had “more to do” to ensure all restrictions were lifted, adding: “We should get back to travel how it was two years ago. Anything less is not acceptable.”
He said: “I would urge people to just take five minutes to remember what travel used to be like, write it down, keep it in your head and lobby for that.
“We’ve spent a lot of time lobbying and it can be very effective. We’ve had some very, very supportive MPs who have worked closely with the industry. I can’t go through and name them all, but there have been a lot who are very supportive.
“MPs and civil servants are there to serve the population that votes them in.”
He added: “There is no need to continue to fill a passenger locator form in, in my opinion.
“The first thing to remove is all the testing and all the restrictions and get that done throughout Europe, but we should be back to how it was two years ago and as an industry we can’t give up on that.”
“If we do, things will stay in place like they did after 9/11 and they did after the financial crash, things always stay in place.
“We should go back to how it was because travel used to be a really, really enjoyable thing that’s good for people’s physical and mental health. Why make it more difficult than it has to be?”
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