It is fair to say that the airline industry was rather underwhelmed by the UK’s list of ‘green’ destinations to which non-essential travel can begin from 17 May.
Notably, it contained just one mass-market outbound tourism market in Portugal, with several destinations being places that do not accept non-essential travellers and others being small islands with tiny visitor numbers during ‘normal’ times.
“It is very disappointing and frankly not worth commenting on,” said IATA director general Willie Walsh in response to the list’s publication.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, which represents carriers including British Airways, EasyJet and Jet2, did not have anything positive to add, stating: ”This is a missed opportunity, and with so few countries making it on to the Green list represents a reopening of air travel in name only.”
There is palpable frustration in Europe that the first half of 2021 is proving to be a washout, amid a faltering start to vaccination programmes in some countries, alongside new waves of the virus and concerns about the spread of variants.
But while UK airlines were hoping to be serving many more countries from the mid-May restart date – including crucial transatlantic markets and popular leisure destinations such as Spain – the government’s actions still represent progress towards something better. At the same time, the mood music is undeniably improving across a European region where vaccination programmes have ramped up significantly in recent weeks.
Crucially, the UK’s ‘green list’ is reviewed every three weeks, meaning that it might not be long before more countries are added to it.
And the European Commission’s recent proposals to ease restrictions on travel into European Union states were another important milestone. Individual EU members will make decisions on when travel restrictions are loosened, but combined with plans for “Digital Green Certificates”, a framework is…