Yahoo Finance Virgin Atlantic and British Airways join legal action over ‘traffic light’ fiasco
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have joined a legal challenge against the Government labelling the decision making behind its “traffic light” system as an opaque “black box”.
Court papers filed on Thursday reveal the two airlines as interested parties alongside Ryanair in a Judicial Review against Boris Johnson’s administration.
The owner of Stansted and Manchester airports is leading the court action.
The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Ryanair was suing the Government after being incensed over its handling of a system that was supposed to control Britain’s borders based on data about the virus.
In court papers seen by The Telegraph, a challenge to the legality of the first review of the traffic light system is set out. The review, announced by Grant Shapps on June 3, removed Portugal from the Government’s “green list”.
The filing continues: “The decision-making process, the thresholds applied to each traffic light band, and the reasons for the decisions taken in respect of almost all countries and territories are undisclosed and the decision-making process lacks transparency in a fundamental way.
“The decision-making process is akin to a 'black box', rather than the transparent, risk-based approach.”
The airport owner and airlines want a judge to decide whether the Government’s decision to revise the traffic light list was against the law. They also want a commitment from ministers to review the need to impose restrictions on travellers returning from amber countries, and for any advice that ministers rely on to change the system to be published.
Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, voiced fresh anger on Wednesday when revealing the airline’s plans to join the legal challenge.
“I have no faith in Johnson's government on any of these issues, having completely mismanaged the original lockdowns last year and the reopening now," he said.
"We know they did a great job on vaccines, but largely because they gave it to the private sector.”
Willie Walsh, BA’s former chief executive, said last weekend that it was “disgraceful” for the Government to pull the rug from under consumers and abandon the criteria “where they clearly stated that they would give people a fair warning if the lights were going to change”.
Up to 30,000 holidaymakers had just four days to race back to the UK to avoid quarantine.
A spokesman for the Government said: “We recognise this is a challenging period for the sector, as we seek to balance the timely reopening of international travel while safeguarding public health and protecting the vaccine roll-out.
“Our traffic light system cautiously manages the risk of new variants, and we have provided £7bn to help support for the industry during the pandemic.
“We cannot comment on legal proceedings.”
