UK aviation is “essentially a closed industry” due to the lack of green-list countries (Credit: Heathrow airport)
The group, which represents UK-registered airlines, said more countries would be included on the green list if a truly “risk-based” system was used.
Rob Griggs, Airlines UK’s director of policy and public affairs, told the Travel Technology Initiative (TTI) webinar: “The government is very risk-averse on travel. The evidence says there’s no zero risk to opening any part of the economy – whether that’s pubs or schools.
“We can put in measures that create a balanced risk to reopening international travel. If we had a risk-based traffic light system, we would have more countries on the green list than we do now.”
Griggs said Airlines UK was “seeking and pushing for further transparency” on how the government assesses countries within the traffic light system.