Airlines call on government to reopen travel despite possible restrictions
The aviation industry has called on the UK Government to either reopen travel or “come to the table with economic support.”
Airlines UK, the trade body that represents British carriers, has lambasted the government for its lack to support, saying “offering more debt to a sector that has already borrowed billions of pounds is not sustainable.”
“We are approaching the key booking period for the year and consumer sentiment is shot to pieces, due to the testing requirements imposed on travel that can cost hundreds of pounds when free NHS tests are available in other sectors,” said Airlines UK’s chief executive, Tim Alderslade.
“We have a bleak few months ahead with potentially little to no revenue, yet still need to be able to deliver for passengers and UK plc in the spring and summer.
“The cost to the wider economy will be hundreds of millions of pounds if we can’t open up – not to mention the jobs and skills that will be lost from the sector, many permanently, across all parts of the UK.
“We support 500,000 direct jobs. These can’t be sustained if there is no demand.”
Alderslade’s comments come amid industry calls asking Whitehall to help out ailing businesses. Just last week, low-cost carrier Ryanair mocked Chancellor Rishi Sunak, urging him to “come back” from his travel to California and “help out.”
“It’s not often we plug our rivals, but there’s plenty of flights from California back to the UK if you’ve got urgent business to attend to,” the airline said in a tweet.
As concerns over a possible strengthening of restrictions mount, the shares of British Airways’ (BA) owner IAG and Easyjet have tanked, City PM reported. IAG went down 2.39 per cent to 128.88p while Easyjet registered a 1.22 per cent decrease to 502.20p.