The CEOs of a number of UK airlines have called on prime minister Boris Johnson to extend the existing furlough scheme until the end of the IATA summer season in October and to waive air passenger duty for a year.
The prime minister will speak to the nation on Monday and is set to give details of how the UK can exit its current lockdown. The bosses of carriers including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet have called on him to announce sector-specific measures and to outline a risk-based approach to reopen travel safely.
The CEOs have warned that without a clear indication of intent from the Government that aviation will restart in the coming months the UK “faces a year of limited connectivity to the rest of the world, and the UK’s economic recovery will be hampered”.
They have written to the prime minster to outline a framework that would allow for the safe restart of travel as vaccination levels increase in the UK, by progressively removing the current layers of restrictions applied to travel destinations, on a tiered basis, in time for the summer.
Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic, said: “Aviation, and free movement of people and goods, are crucial to the UK’s economic recovery and the emergence of a truly global Britain as it recovers from the crisis. That’s why it’s important aviation is included in the Prime Minister’s roadmap on Monday.”
Jonathan Hinkles, CEO of Loganair, said: “Restrictions today are so draconian that many UK airports are considering outright closure, which will destroy even the limited connectivity maintained without fail throughout the pandemic for movement of freight and key workers. The loss of more jobs – which we’ve worked so hard to avoid – would be a hammer blow to the industry.
"The only way to avoid this is to provide a business reason for airports to stay open, and that can only be done by the Government setting out a pathway to re-open travel just as soon as this can safely be achieved.”