Major airlines in the UK aviation industry have written to the government seeking financial support and the scrapping of testing for fully vaccinated passengers in a bid to fight the travel restrictions imposed to tackle the spread of the Omicron variant, media reports said.
Chief executives of major UK carriers have written to the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. According to British Airways’ CEO Sean Doyle, Virgin Atlantic’s CEO Shai Weiss, and Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary, further travel uncertainty is set to cause the UK aviation industry further ongoing financial pain.
The letter reads, “We and our customers feel sincerely let down, having believed a more pragmatic, evidence-led approach to travel, in line with the rest of the world, had been achieved and agreed by all concerned just a few months ago.”
“Whilst we fully recognise the need to take steps to contain the initial impact of the Omicron variant, travel has been singled out with the introduction of disproportionate restrictions.
“Further, pre-departure and upon-arrival testing clearly add very little value to our Covid protection, but unnecessarily disrupt Christmas for families as well as businesses while severely damaging the UK travel industry.”
Recently, British Airways has signed a multi-year agreement with Phillips 66 to use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) produced commercially in the UK. The SAF will be manufactured at the Humber Refinery from sustainable waste feedstock.
In this regard, Sean Doyle told the media, “This agreement marks another critical milestone on our drive to net-zero carbon emissions and constitutes part of our pledge, as part of International Airlines Group, to power 10 percent of flights with SAF by 2030.”