A government pledge to review the Passenger Locator Form and suggestions it could be removed by Easter would compromise the use of vaccination certificates for travel, say aviation sources.
Prime minister Boris Johnson responded to an MP’s question on removing the “irritating” PLF on Monday, saying “we’re reviewing the PLF” and promised an update “by Easter”.
Agents hailed the announcement, with Designer Travel managing director Amanda Matthews describing the PLF’s removal as “the last piece of the jigsaw”, although she said: “The rest of the world needs to catch up.”
Travel Village Group owner Phil Nuttall slammed the PLF as “a pain” and said: “I’m fed up doing the government’s paperwork.”
However, an airline source said: “The PLF is the way to know whether a passenger is vaccinated. To get rid of the PLF you would need not to look at vaccination certificates anymore.”
The source suggested the ‘review’ would be “more of a simplification that was scheduled by Easter anyway” and said: “We need the PLF. If we got to the point where we don’t need vaccination certificates, then we don’t need it.
“But the PLF will be around so long as we’re checking passengers’ vaccine status.
“In the meantime, there needs to be more simplification. They’ve only taken out the test questions [for the vaccinated] and some contact information. It should basically be ‘are you vaccinated?’ You upload your certificate, passport details and phone number. That is all.”
The government would like the PLF information integrated with existing advance passenger information (API), but the source noted: “Airline API systems are not designed for health questions. That could not be ready by Easter.”
A second aviation source warned the UK risks going too far in relaxing restrictions if other countries don’t follow, saying: “The government should take more account of what’s happening internationally. They need to bear in mind what the international consensus is when making decisions.
“We’re beholden to what others do. Could removing free testing and relaxing Covid monitoring mean other countries put restrictions on the UK? It will have consequences. Often these are forgotten until too late.”
The government is removing remaining domestic legal restrictions on Thursday and will end free Covid testing for most people from April 1.
But Johnson said: “There will be new variants so we’ll maintain surveillance and preserve our capabilities to ramp up testing.”
Transport secretary Grant Shapps pledged “we won’t implement emergency measures in response to new variants unless in extreme circumstances”, with “more detail [on] a toolkit of measures we can deploy to tackle new threats before Easter”. He confirmed the end of hotel quarantine from the end of March.
The EU recommended on Tuesday that fully vaccinated UK travellers be allowed entry without a Covid test from March 1.
However, this remains subject to decisions by individual states, which can still require a PCR test, and the EU agreed children aged six to 18 who have not had two vaccine doses would require a PCR.
More: Shapps ‘in push to axe PLFs’ in time for Easter holidays