The British government has imposed a 14 day mandatory quarantine for all incoming air travelers. This policy has not gone down well with the airlines of the country.
This has prompted three major airlines to launch legal action against the British government. The airlines called the new quarantine plan of the country to be “flawed”.
The new mandatory quarantine policy for most incoming travelers will have a “devastating effect’’ on tourism industry of the country as well as the wider economy, said British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair in a statement on Friday. The demand of the airlines form the British government is to re-adopt its previous policy where the government had issued orders of mandatory quarantine only for those travelers who come into the country from “high risk” countries.
According to the new quarantine measures of the British government that was imposed starting this week makes it mandatory for all passengers — except for a few category of travelers such as truckers or medical workers, to fill in a form detailing where they will self-isolate for two weeks. This new policy is applicable to all people irrespective of whether they are British citizens or not. The government will also impose a fine on those who do not follow the rule.
The new policy on quarantine of air travelers was preceded by a heated debate on whether such a measure would be useful in any way for the country to bring the outbreak of the pandemic under control or will it only result in stamping out any hopes that the British tourism industry will recover following months of lockdown.
Even though the British airlines industry has proposed that the government should create “air bridges’’ with those countries with low rates of transmission , there has been some hesitation on the part of the government to adopt such a strategy. The airlines argue there has been no detail on how such proposals would be implemented.
“(The airlines) want the government to re-adopt its previous quarantine policy introduced on March 10, where quarantine is limited to passengers from 'high risk' countries,’’ they said in a statement. “This would be the most practical and effective solution and enables civil servants to focus on other, more significant, issues arising from the pandemic while bringing the U.K. in line with much of Europe which is opening its borders mid-June.’’
The novel coronavirus pandemic related travel restrictions has brought to a halt almost all air travel in an effort of countries to control the spread of the pandemic, which has hit all airlines all across the world very hard. It has been predicted that the global airlines will lose as much as $84 billion this year making it the worst ever for the industry. A number of airlines have filed for bankruptcy or sought bailouts from governments to survive the near-shutdown in their activity. Many are also cutting jobs. Experts have predicted that it will be years before the airline industry will be able to recover completely.
(Source:www.usnews.com)
This has prompted three major airlines to launch legal action against the British government. The airlines called the new quarantine plan of the country to be “flawed”.
The new mandatory quarantine policy for most incoming travelers will have a “devastating effect’’ on tourism industry of the country as well as the wider economy, said British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair in a statement on Friday. The demand of the airlines form the British government is to re-adopt its previous policy where the government had issued orders of mandatory quarantine only for those travelers who come into the country from “high risk” countries.
According to the new quarantine measures of the British government that was imposed starting this week makes it mandatory for all passengers — except for a few category of travelers such as truckers or medical workers, to fill in a form detailing where they will self-isolate for two weeks. This new policy is applicable to all people irrespective of whether they are British citizens or not. The government will also impose a fine on those who do not follow the rule.
The new policy on quarantine of air travelers was preceded by a heated debate on whether such a measure would be useful in any way for the country to bring the outbreak of the pandemic under control or will it only result in stamping out any hopes that the British tourism industry will recover following months of lockdown.
Even though the British airlines industry has proposed that the government should create “air bridges’’ with those countries with low rates of transmission , there has been some hesitation on the part of the government to adopt such a strategy. The airlines argue there has been no detail on how such proposals would be implemented.
“(The airlines) want the government to re-adopt its previous quarantine policy introduced on March 10, where quarantine is limited to passengers from 'high risk' countries,’’ they said in a statement. “This would be the most practical and effective solution and enables civil servants to focus on other, more significant, issues arising from the pandemic while bringing the U.K. in line with much of Europe which is opening its borders mid-June.’’
The novel coronavirus pandemic related travel restrictions has brought to a halt almost all air travel in an effort of countries to control the spread of the pandemic, which has hit all airlines all across the world very hard. It has been predicted that the global airlines will lose as much as $84 billion this year making it the worst ever for the industry. A number of airlines have filed for bankruptcy or sought bailouts from governments to survive the near-shutdown in their activity. Many are also cutting jobs. Experts have predicted that it will be years before the airline industry will be able to recover completely.
(Source:www.usnews.com)
