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Travel industry dismayed at lack of detail in Taskforce framework
The Global Travel Taskforce’s framework announcement has left the industry underwhelmed with many questions still unanswered.
It lacks detail for both travel businesses and airlines, as well as holidaymakers.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) says the government’s overly- cautious approach is just prolonging uncertainty.
Brian Strutton, General Secretary of BALPA, said, "This plan will keep the aviation industry on its knees. Ministers have said that the best form of support would be to get Britain flying again this summer. This announcement simply won’t do that."
"The British public – more than half of whom have now received a vaccine – will not feel confident to book holidays without knowing whether they’ll be forced into quarantine on their return.
"Even for countries on the Green list travellers will need to take a PCR test at £100 per person, which is not sustainable, Strutton added."
Testing costs are a major barrier to a meaningful travel recovery, said Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.
The framework also ‘lacks any rigorous detail.’
"Following the publication of the framework today, we still do not know when we can start to fly, where we can fly to and the availability and cost of testing. Rather than answering questions, the framework leaves everyone asking more," Heapy said.
Amex GBT came to a similar conclusion over the lack of detail, as it fails to provide ‘the needed reassurances to restart international travel.’
"A continued absence of detail is detrimental to our economic recovery and the millions of jobs supported by the travel industry. With vaccination programmes continuing apace around the world, we need the government to turn its attention to the economic health of the UK," said Andrew Crawley, GBT’s Chief Commercial Officer.
"We are at a pivotal moment and need a greater sense of urgency from Government to get trade and travel safely moving again. Opening up the UK-US travel corridor seems an obvious area to start."
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TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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