British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will urge President Joe Biden to lift US-UK flight restrictions at their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office, unless Biden does so before then, a top British official warned U.S. diplomats.
According to a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by the PBS NewsHour, Robert Courts, Parliament’s Under Secretary of State at the Department of Transport, requested an “urgent” meeting with the top-ranking official at the U.S. Embassy in London, chargé d’affaires Yael Lempert, on Monday.
“Courts expressed surprise that the United States continues to restrict entry under 212(f) for UK travelers despite Her Majesty’s Government’s [HMG] successful nationwide vaccination campaign and greatly decreased COVID-19 infection and death rates,” the cable read.
He said that London and New York should establish an “airbridge” through which transatlantic travel can be resumed, an idea the airline industry has proposed. He also said he anticipated Johnson would raise the idea, as well urge the lifting of restrictions, with Biden when they meet on the margins of the G7 Summit in Cornwall, England in early June, “if there have been no positive developments by that point.”
The day after the meeting between Courts and Lempert, a coalition of six major US and UK airlines, including American, United, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, wrote a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and UK Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps proposing a summit between the two “to explore a path to safely and expeditiously reopen transatlantic travel in a manner that aligns with public health objectives.”
“Safely reopening borders between the U.S. and the U.K. is essential for the continued economic recovery of both nations,” the airlines wrote….