The boss of troubled airline Virgin Atlantic is pushing for the USA to be on Boris Johnson's 'green list', after warning the pandemic has cost the airline £858million.
Virgin CEO Shai Wess said there is "no reason to delay" the return of trans-Atlantic travel as he called for flights to resume with minimal restrictions on May 17.
Virgin, which has made several pleas for government bailouts since the start of the Covid emergency, has recently completed a rescue deal with investors – which involved hundreds of job cuts.
Sir Richard Branson, who owns 51% of the airline, even offered to remortgage Necker – his private island - to prevent its collapse after passenger numbers tumbled by over a million.
Under the government's roadmap for reopening, non-essential travel is set to resume on May 17 under a "traffic light" system - with the 'green list' the safest places people can visit with the least restrictions.
Weiss said the USA - where almost one third of the population have now been vaccinated - should be on the list. This would allow passengers to travel freely without having to isolate, though they would have to pay for Covid tests.
Weiss said: "With world leading vaccination programmes in both the UK and US, and evidence to support safe reopening through testing, there is a clear opportunity to open up travel and no reason to delay beyond 17 May."
The comments come after easyJet boss Johan Lundgren said that European holiday destinations such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal should be on the list too.
Transatlantic routes typically account for about four-fifths of revenues for Virgin Atlantic - which is 51% owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group and 49% by America's Delta airlines.
Weiss said Virgin welcomed the government's reopening system but said further delays could severely impact jobs.
"Now we need certainty that the framework will allow for a phased removal of testing and quarantine," he said.
Virgin said revenues fell by 70% to £858million last year after borders were forced to shut.
It also said it "made a significant contribution towards the national effort to protect lives, from transporting vital PPE and medical supplies, to volunteering to support NHS frontline services".
The carrier said it has also processed more than £600million of customer refunds in the past 12months.
Virgin's loss for the year of compares to a loss of £63.7million in 2019.
