Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has sought leave to appeal against a High Court ruling that the government acted lawfully in categorising countries under the traffic light system for international travel.
London’s High Court rejected the attempt to force the government to publish the data behind decisions on destinations’ status last month.
But a MAG spokesman confirmed: “We have applied for leave to appeal and are awaiting a judge’s verdict on that.”
The grounds for the appeal have not been disclosed. The spokesman said: “Only once we have [the judge’s verdict] can we decide on next steps.”
However, Travel Weekly understands MAG’s lawyers intend to argue the government had a legal duty to be transparent about how it made decisions and had created expectations this would be the case.
They would argue there was also a requirement for transparency so decisions could be understood because of the impact on MAG’s business.
A decision on an appeal is expected by mid-September.
For an appeal to go ahead, the Appeal Court would need to accept there were legal grounds for potentially overturning the High Court ruling, not just agree to re-hear the original arguments.
Travel industry entrepreneur Clive Jacobs vowed to back any appeal on behalf of travel SMEs.
Jacobs, chairman of Travel Weekly parent Jacobs Media Group, was an ‘interested party’ to MAG’s High Court claim against the secretaries of state for transport and health along with Ryanair, BA parent IAG, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and Tui UK.
He pledged to “do everything possible” to ensure the voice of SMEs is heard having launched a crowdfunding appeal in June to back legal action.
Jacobs said: “The response to the crowdfunding appeal demonstrated the significant pressure the travel sector is under as a result not just of the pandemic but of government restrictions and the travel traffic light system which lacks transparency.
“If MAG’s appeal goes ahead, I will do everything possible to support it to ensure the travel industry is heard.”
He added: “I made my application to court to evidence the widespread impact on the travel industry of the flawed and unreasonable way in which the traffic light system has operated, and the damage being done to SMEs and to livelihoods. The government must be held to account for the way it makes decisions.”