UK at disadvantage compared to EU countries due to Covid travel rules
26 July 2021, 08:18 | Updated: 26 July 2021, 08:20
Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye has warned that British jobs will be lost unless the government changes the rules on double vaccinated travellers.
Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, the airport CEO warned that the UK was falling behind as other Western nations seize the economic advantage.
Mr Holland-Kaye said the UK had failed to open its borders to travellers from the United States, meaning visitors and business owners cannot come here.
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However, this is not the case with other countries such as France and Germany.
In a stark warning, the airport boss said "unless we start opening up to doubly vaccinated passengers, particularly from the US and also the EU then the UK will just fall further behind."
Mr Holland-Kaye warned this could cost British jobs, "which could be protected."
Heathrow Airport said that its cumulative losses from the Covid-19 pandemic have increased to £2.9 billion as it served the same number of passengers in the first six months of 2021 as it did in just 18 days in 2019.
The company said that recent changes to the Government's traffic light system are "encouraging" for the sector but that the airport could serve fewer passengers in 2021 than in 2020 because of expensive testing requirements.
Revenue dropped from £712 million in the first six months of 2020 to £348 million in the opening half of this year. Meanwhile, pre-tax loss widened 18% to a little over £1 billion.
