The CEOs of the five carriers that
offer UK-US passenger services – American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air
Lines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic – plus JetBlue, which launches services later this summer, have joined together to call on the UK and US governments for the re-opening of the UK-US travel
corridor.
The airline bosses, along with Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye and US Travel Association president
and CEO Roger Dow, issued the call at a panel event, hosted by Duncan Edwards, chief
executive of BritishAmerican Business.
The
call comes ahead of this week’s G7 meeting in Cornwall.
At the time of writing, around 63.5 per cent of adults in the US have received at
least one dose, while about half of adults – 139 million people – have been fully
vaccinated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control. In the UK, almost 68 million shots have been given in total, according to the government, including 27.7 million who have been fully vaccinated.
As part of the appeal to
governments, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was asked to consider removing the
need for travellers returning to the UK from ‘green list’ countries to complete
a PCR test on their arrival, instead calling for lateral flow tests, used in
care homes and schools, with only positive tests requiring a PCR test.
Shai Weiss,
CEO of Virgin Atlantic, said: “There is no reason for the US to be absent from the UK green
list. This overly cautious approach fails to reap the benefits of the
successful vaccination programmes in both the UK and the US. While transatlantic
links with the US are restricted, it’s costing the UK economy £23 million each day.”
Sean Doyle, chairman
and CEO, British Airways, said: “As President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson
meet this week, they must address the transatlantic ban that is separating our
two low-risk countries at a major cost to our citizens and economies. We
urgently need them to look to the science and base their judgements on a proper
risk analysis, allowing us all to benefit from the protection offered by our successful
vaccine rollouts.
“In the UK this means making
the traffic light system fit for purpose, including a pathway to
restriction-free travel for vaccinated travellers, and getting rid of
complexity surrounding ‘amber list’ countries, eliminating quarantine and
reducing the number of tests passengers are required to take.”
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, said,
"It’s clear that the infection rates of our countries indicate an
extraordinarily low risk to travel between the US the UK, provided travellers
are vaccinated or can produce a negative PCR test prior to boarding a flight. Our modelling
studies conducted with Mayo Clinic put the risk of transmission on a plane
travelling between the UK and US at one in one million.”