Yahoo Finance Gatwick tells UK government not to 'squander benefits of world leading vaccination programme'
Gatwick Airport has urged the UK government to simplify international travel requirements, warning that the country’s aviation industry is in danger of falling “substantially” behind Europe without swift action.
The London airport on Friday said the UK needed to improve passenger confidence in international travel and “not squander the benefits of its world leading vaccination programme”. Three in 4 UK adults have now receive both doses of a COVID-19 vaccination.
“The UK aviation recovery is far behind countries in Europe such as France and Germany whose travel bookings are on average over 50% of pre-pandemic levels whereas the in the UK it is sitting at approximately 16%,” Gatwick said in a statement.
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The plea for action came as Gatwick reported a significant downturn in passenger numbers and a loss of over £200m in the first half of 2021. The airport blamed complex and costly restrictions on international travel.
"Our government needs to act now and remove unnecessary and costly PCR testing requirements for passengers, particularly for those double vaccinated," said Gatwick's CEO Stewart Wingate.
Gatwick wants no COVID test requirements for travellers entering the UK from 'green' list countries and for double vaccinated travellers coming from 'amber' countries. Currently, both groups need to take a COVID-19 test on their second day of arrival.
Gatwick said unvaccinated people flying in from an 'amber' country should only be required to take a single lateral flow test. Currently, travellers must quarantine at home for 10 days and take a COVID-19 PCR test on the second and eighth day after their arrival.
PCR tests cost about £75 on average. The UK market for testing has been described as a "wild west" and the government this week ordered the UK's competition watchdog to investigate, amid concerns about the cost and reliability of private PCR tests, and customer service at the companies that offer them.
The call for action came as Gatwick reported a severe slump in business. Passenger numbers fell to just 569,000 in the first six months of the year and the airport suffered a loss of £244.6m ($337.7m).
"I remain certain that Gatwick will recover and as a business we are financially and operationally well placed for that," Wingate said.
Read more: Heathrow's COVID-19 losses hit £2.9bn as CEO warns UK 'falling behind its EU rivals'
Gatwick said "swift and decisive" actions taken last year had helped reduce its operating costs by 34.4% in the first half of the year. The airport renegotiated contracts and temporarily shutdown some infrastructure.
Staff costs in the first half of 2021 were 46% lower than last year at £31.3m lower (46.4%) due to the restructuring completed at the end of 2020. The business has £779m of liquidity and is in talks with lenders about temporary waivers to covenants on its debt.
The travel industry has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Last month, Heathrow said its pandemic losses had reached £2.9bn ($4bn) since the crisis began.
Heathrow Airport's CEO John Holland-Kaye also warned the UK is "falling behind its EU rivals in international trade by being slow to remove restrictions".
Echoing Wingate's sentiments, he said replacing PCR tests with lateral flow tests and opening up to EU and US vaccinated travellers at the end of July was the only way to get Britain's economic recovery off the ground.
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