Comment: Best way to help aviation, travel and tourism is to get Britain flying again

The announcement last week that fully vaccinated people flying to the UK from Europe and the USA will be exempt from quarantine is welcome progress that will boost travel and will reunite people with their loved ones.

However, our aviation and travel industries remain largely grounded. They were one of the first industries to be hit by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and will be one the last to recover, with passenger numbers still at historic lows. The economic and social consequences have been devastating, with businesses losing billions and thousands of jobs lost.

As a result of our overly cautious approach to international travel, the risks to these businesses and their employees remain very real, with over half of all aviation employees still stuck on furlough and an unambitious green list holding the UK back.

The best way to help our aviation, travel and tourism industries is to get Britain flying again. This week the Government has an opportunity to be far more ambitious during the approach to the final weeks of summer.

Whilst this will help the industry, it will not be enough on its own. After a weak season which in normal times would be a peak, Government must act further and protect jobs through a sector-specific extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

We will need our aviation and travel industry to be fighting fit as we look to bounce back from the pandemic, but to do this it needs sufficient support and for the Government to shift away from the current approach which is holding us back.

This first appeared in the Sunday Express - https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/1470472/Travel-watch-list-latest-covid-restrictions-UK-holidays-abroad