LEEDS Bradford Airport (LBA) has joined today's 'Travel Day of Action' to urge the Government to safely reopen the hard-hit sector.

Industry body Abta estimates 195,000 travel jobs have been lost during the coronavirus pandemic - or are at risk.

It accused ministers of failing to deliver a restart to travel by “undermining” the traffic light system.

LBA passenger numbers are down by more than 90 per cent due to the pandemic and on-going uncertainty surrounding travel restrictions. 

As part of the Travel Day of Action, LBA is joining calls on the UK Government to:

  • Allow international travel to return safely and in a risk-managed way by properly implementing the Global Travel Taskforce’s plan for a traffic-light system. They are calling for the expansion of the green list in line with the evidence and to make restrictions more proportionate, whilst keeping a strong red list to guard against variants. They also want the Government to capitalise on the success of the vaccine rollout by relaxing testing and quarantine requirements for those who are fully vaccinated.
     
  • Bring forward a package of tailored financial support, including extension of furlough support, recognising that the travel sector’s ability to trade and generate income is much slower than first anticipated and more gradual than for businesses in the domestic economy.

Vincent Hodder, CEO of LBA, said: “Aviation has been impacted on a global scale due to the pandemic and there remains more uncertainty for international travel; the Government’s approach is impairing our ability to meaningfully reopen aviation in the UK and our ability to reach sustainable volumes of customers.

"Travel can be safely reopened using the Government’s framework - other countries have done this. The UK is falling behind.

"Many other closed sectors that have now been able to reopen have benefited from enhanced support beyond the job retention scheme over the last year. In the short term, aviation also needs that support to sustain cash flow and protect jobs, as well as greater certainty for our passengers on their ability to travel without restrictions.

“We must not lose sight of the role that aviation will play in the Government’s levelling up agenda and how buoyancy in aviation can aid regional economic recoveries, now and in the future, as well as for our long term connectivity.”

Karen Dee, Airport Operators Association Chief Executive, added: “The Government’s overly cautious approach to reopening travel has real-world consequences for the 1.6m jobs in the UK aviation and tourism industries that rely on aviation having a meaningful restart.

“Unless the Government makes a meaningful restart of aviation possible by extending the green list at the next review, moving to rapid and affordable tests for returning travellers and following the examples of the EU and the US by reducing restrictions on fully vaccinated passengers, aviation and travel are in for an extremely difficult summer.

“If the Government decides it cannot reopen travel more meaningfully, then they should stand ready to give substantial financial compensation to airports and others in aviation and tourism.

“Jobs and livelihoods in businesses across the economy that need air connectivity for their success are at risk. The Government cannot afford to let those go.”

Derek Jones, boss of luxury travel firm Kuoni, said the outbound travel sector has been “decimated by this pandemic and by the Government’s haphazard response to it”.

He added: “Today, we have joined together to call upon ministers to acknowledge that the restrictions they have placed on international travel are having a deep and devastating impact on travel businesses.

“We are united in one message today: we want to see the safe reopening of international travel alongside targeted financial support for businesses which have not been able to trade for well over a year.”

A Government spokeswoman said: “Our international travel policy is guided by one overwhelming priority: protecting public health.

“Decisions on traffic light allocations take into account a range of factors including genomic surveillance capability, transmission risk and variants of concern, with data behind decisions to move countries on the list published online.

“We keep all measures under review and continue to engage with industry and international partners to explore how we can open international travel safely. Both tailored and wider economic support is still available to the sector, including the furlough scheme.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday that the Government is “working on” plans to allow quarantine-free travel for fully vaccinated Britons returning from amber locations.

A “checkpoint” review of the rules for each tier is scheduled to take place on Monday.