Britain's busiest airport. Heathrow has on Monday 13th, September called on the UK government again to change its travel rules for passengers coming into the country. Saying, it will help the sector recover from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heathrow made the call after a continuous decline in the number of passengers traveling through the airport. The airport says, “passenger numbers were still 71 percent lower in August compared to the same month before the Covid-19 pandemic. This has pushed it down to 10th busiest European airport from its top spot in 2019.”
Heathrow stressed that” it would favor a two-tier system with destination countries rated either low risk or high risk, with the latter still requiring hotel quarantine. Fully vaccinated travelers would be able to travel freely, the system being used by many European countries, while those not vaccinated would take pre-departure or arrival tests using lateral flow tests, which are cheaper than PCR tests.
There are three tiers at the moment with expensive tests always required for everyone including those who are fully vaccinated.
According to the airport "major airlines supported the development, as it warned of the consequences of not improving the current system."
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye says, "if ministers fail to take this opportunity to streamline the travel rules then the UK will fall further behind as trade and tourists will increasingly bypass the UK."
The airport made a further call on the UK government to ensure it had adequate staff at the border after reports of hours-long queues in recent weeks.
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