Pre-departure testing for airline passengers arriving in the UK should be reviewed as soon as possible with travel restrictions eased as the Covid vaccine is rolled out.
The UK Government has confirmed that the new regime will be imposed from 4am on Friday - a measure some tour operators and airport bosses have been calling for since the start of the pandemic.
The new rule is in addition to existing quarantine regulations that force passengers arriving in the UK to isolate for 10 days unless they can provide a negative test five days later.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, which represents UK-registered carriers like Jet2, Ryanair, easyJet and Tui, questioned if both curbs were needed.
He said: "This is a national health emergency and ministers need to act to keep the country safe.
"It is true that much of the sector has been lobbying for pre-departure testing – but this was always predicated on the Government removing or reducing the quarantine period at the same time.
"Now we have both quarantine and pre-departure testing. That’s why this new policy needs to be a time-limited, emergency measure only, in place not a second longer than necessary, and with a proper review mechanism once lockdown comes to an end.
"We cannot afford for this to be baked in over the whole Summer.
“The focus must be on returning travel to normal as quickly as possible and removing the need to quarantine or take a test as the UK population is vaccinated.
"Ideally, as the vaccination roll-out gathers pace and the most at-risk parts of the country are inoculated, we can start to see the economy, and travel, open up, which would enable the sector to have what will be a critical summer season for aviation.”
Those returning from St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda will also be exempt until January 21 because of a shortage of testing facilities on the Caribbean islands.
