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U.K. Quarantine Hotels- Another Blow For The Bleeding Airline Industry

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Airlines in the U.K. have been dealt another blow with the announcement by the British Government that arriving passengers from a number of countries will be required to spend two weeks in a quarantine hotel at their own expense.

The industry is supportive of measures which are clearly necessary to gain control over the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the manner in which these are determined, the way in which they are implemented and the damaging impact they create, is highly questionable. The latest policy announcement is vague and imprecise in detail and has been announced with no structured official consultation with airlines.

Consultation

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but experts around the world have long warned about the need to prepare for the impact of a major pandemic and, despite experience from cases such as SARS, governments, including that in the U.K., have been found wanting.

Whilst it is certainly not easy to determine an appropriate response to the virus, as far as the airline industry is concerned, policy has been communicated and implemented on the hoof, often on a last minute basis. One would expect that there would be a regular sitting down with the industry to draw on its expertise and to consider the practicalities of policy implementation, but this has scarcely happened.

Airlines floundering to respond

Consequently, airlines have been left floundering around trying to respond, adapting timetables and communicating with customers, but with insufficient notice or clarity, to do so effectively.

For months, the industry has been recommending pre-flight Covid testing to reduce the need for quarantines and also post flight testing to allow people free of the virus to cut short any required quarantine and resume normal life. These measures have only just been implemented and even then, as stated, in a very last minute and confusing fashion.

Constantly changing, poorly defined and communicated policy measures have led to uncertainty amongst travellers resulting in a lack of confidence and unwillingness to make bookings. The consequence of this is further damage to the airline industry which is losing millions of dollars a day and has been haemorrhaging cash for months.

Lack of enforcement

Where quarantines have been applied by the U.K., a lack of enforcement and inadequate border control manpower means that airlines have been left to bleed without actually achieving a better control of the virus.  

Normally the early part of the year would be a time of peak booking activity for the important and normally profitable summer season, but this is not happening.

The airline industry, including airports and many in the supply chain, account for many U.K. jobs as well as acting as a key catalyst for trade and tourism with many more indirect jobs supported. In France and Germany, there has been massive state investment in the airline sector in recognition of its pivotal economic role, this is in stark contrast to the U.K. which has relied on generalized measures such as the job furlough scheme.

Collateral damage

U.K. airlines have been working to find their own solutions to securing liquidity, but efforts are being undermined by the lack of detailed engagement with government. There is a willingness to shackle airlines and to fine them, if they unwittingly flout the ever-changing rules, but scant effort to engage on a coherent and regular basis to tackle the challenge whilst avoiding collateral damage to the industry.

Many back bench MPs, whose constituencies depend on aviation jobs, are advocating an active support package, which could for example include relief on onerous ticket taxes, but at Cabinet and policy level nothing is happening. 

Without an urgent recognition of the need to engage on a consistent and proactive basis in policy formulation and to help one of the U.K.’s most important industries to survive and recover, it will not be there to support the “global Britain” mantra once the pandemic is under control.

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