The UK travel industry is holding a day of action to pressure the government to reopen the sector and provide more financial support for businesses.
Industry body Abta estimates that 195,000 travel jobs have been lost or are at risk due to the COVID pandemic.
Ministers have been accused of failing to revive travel by ‘undermining’ the UK’s traffic light system.
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Heathrow Airport has seen a dramatic drop in the number of travelers since the start of the pandemic
There are no large viable tourist destinations on the green list without quarantine, and the government urged people to avoid vacations in Amber List locations.
Hundreds of people, including pilots, cabin crew and travel agents, will later gather outside the Palace of Westminster.
Some 200 will meet at an event in Holyrood, Edinburgh, 100 will meet in Belfast and a virtual meeting will be held for activists in Wales.
The day of action aims to persuade the government to expand the green list and remove testing and quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travelers returning from green and amber locations.
Tim Alderslade, Managing Director of Airlines UK – a trade body representing UK carriers, said: ‘It’s now or never for the government to reopen travel and save what’s left of the summer season, not just for families. desperate to escape, but for the tens of thousands of jobs that depend on this once thriving industry.
“Airlines are at the absolute limit of what they can borrow and without a real reopening this summer they will need government support to survive.”
Media Minister John Whittingdale said he hoped the government would be able to put more countries on the green list of travel restrictions later this week.
Mr Whittingdale told Sky News the list will be revised “later this week to make revisions …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-06-23 07:21:00
