Tourism and aviation leaders call for reopening transatlantic travel
The CEOs of all airlines that offer transoceanic flights between the United Kingdom and the United States, namely American Airlines, [...]
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The CEOs of all the airlines that offer transoceanic flights between the United Kingdom and the United States, namely American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic, gathered today at Heathrow Airport along with other leading CEOs to call for the reopening of transatlantic traffic and thus be able to travel overseas again. A move that will be essential to spark economic recovery.
The main leader in the aviation and travel sector have been united following the meeting of the G7 in Cornwall, to press on the reopening of the travel corridor United Kingdom - United States. With the programs of vaccination continuing at a good pace globally, and particularly so in the United Kingdom and the United States, there is a clear opportunity for open safely travel between these two low-risk countries, allowing consumers on both sides of the Atlantic to reunite with loved ones, re-establish trade relations and explore new destinations after more than a year of blockades and restrictions. The CEOs urged both governments to adopt an approach based on the data and on risk to reopen borders to travel.
Present at this meeting were American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, British Airways CEO and President Sean Doyle, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes, United CEO Scott Kirby, US Travel Association President and CEO Roger Shai Weiss, Dow CEO and Virgin Atlantic CEO. The event was hosted by Duncan Edwards, CEO of BritishAmerican Business.
Participants spoke out after more than a year of travel restrictions that have had a profound impact on the global economy, on the trade and on the tourism between the two countries. Among the topics discussed was the fact that the US is currently on the UK's "green list," meaning that Americans would no longer have to undergo quarantine upon arrival in the UK. But not only that, there was also discussion of the benefits of removing the U.S.-imposed travel ban, the so-called 212(f) order. Again, participants were in favor of the reopening of the transatlantic corridor for UK residents wishing to enter the US.
The United States, in fact, is the largest business partner United Kingdom and British businesses, due to the closure of links, lose daily 23 million pounds. In 2019, 900,000 tons of goods also traveled between the two countries.
In the United States, 63.5% of adults have received at least one dose, while about half of the adult population, 139 million people, were Fully vaccinated. As for the UK data, nearly 68 million people have received the vaccine, more than the 75% of the adult population of the country. Studies show that vaccine programs in both countries are successfully reducing infections, transmission and severity of infection, as well as combating variants.
Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic, commented:
"There is no reason for the United States to be absent from the UK's list of 'green' countries. This overly cautious approach fails to reap the benefits of successful vaccination programs in both the UK and the US. Although transatlantic links with the United States are limited, the UK economy suffers and the damage is quantified at £23 million per day.
We urge Prime Minister Johnson and President Biden to take the path of open skies, which must be a top priority at the G7 summit. Customers, families and businesses must book and travel with confidence. After 15 months of restrictions, the time to act is now."
Sean Doyle, president and CEO of British Airways, said:
"When President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson meet this week, they will have to address the issue of the transatlantic ban that is separating our two countries at low risk at a high cost to our citizens and economies.
We urgently need them to look at the science and base their judgments on proper risk analysis, enabling all of us to benefit from the protection offered by our successful vaccines. In the UK, this means making the 'traffic light' system fit for purpose, including a pathway to unrestricted travel for vaccinated travelers, as well as getting rid of the complexity surrounding 'amber list' countries, eliminating quarantine, and reducing the number of tests passengers have to perform."
British Airways also introduced a news As far as rapid tests are concerned, indeed ultrafast. In fact, the airline has kicked off the trial of Pelican, A digital antihygienic test that is able to return a result in 25 seconds.
The test uses saliva and is effective at the 98% with a peak of 100% for symptomatic positives, the result is given by app. The swab promises to detect positivity of all the variants, British Airways is the first airline to adopt this type of test.
Continuing with the interventions of the summit, John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow, stated:
"UK-US connectivity is one of the great drivers of the global economy. Scientific evidence shows that trans-Atlantic travel and trade can be safely reopened, and every day that politicians delay reopening, they unnecessarily jeopardize jobs, livelihoods and economic opportunities of hardworking people in our countries.
We cannot continue to be locked up indefinitely. Policymakers should take advantage of the successful vaccination programs in our two countries to start looking at a future where we run Covid rather than letting it run us."
Delta Airlines is going to restore tourist flights with Europe, the official date is July 2, the peak flight will be the New York - Dubrovnik, thus paving the way for a new corridor with Croatia, which has decided to welcome vaccinated American tourists.
In addition to Croatia, Greece has also decided to welcome the American tourists. On May 28, Delta will reactivate the New York-Athens route and inaugurate the new Atlanta - Athens from July 2.
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines stated in the meeting with colleagues as follows:
"As we see people recovering their lives and reconnecting with loved ones, it is clear that our countries' infection rates indicate an extraordinarily low risk of traveling between the United States and the United Kingdom, provided travelers are vaccinated or can produce a negative PCR test before boarding.
Our studies with Mayo Clinic calculated the risk of transmission on an airplane traveling between the U.K. and the U.S. The estimate is 1 in 1 million."
Also American Airlines has reactivated tourist connections to Europe, following its sisters Delta and United. These include the one with Greece, thanks to the New York-Athens.
But the areas the U.S. company most wants to focus on are the South America, particularly Chile, Colombia and Brazil.
Doug Parker, president and CEO of American Airlines at the meeting said:
"We are proud of the measures American and others have taken to address the pandemic and ensure a safe, healthy and enjoyable experience for customers when they return to travel. Reopening travel between the United States and the United Kingdom is the next key step that will have benefits in both the travel industry and the recovery of the global economy.
With the ever-expanding availability of vaccines, we know that our business and leisure customers are increasingly eager to cross the Atlantic, and we know that when they do, they will provide a major boost to economies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and around the world. We look forward to continuing to work with both governments as they make this important decision."
Closing the circle with the big American companies, even United is about to reopen strategic links with Croatia, Greece and Iceland thanks to the connection between Newark and Reykjavik.
United's CEO, Scott Kirby During the summit with colleagues, he said:
"During the pandemic, experts encouraged governments, businesses and the public to follow the science. United and other airlines did just that and implemented the safety protocols necessary to confidently reopen key international routes, such as the air corridor between our two countries.
Programs such as the Covid-Free flights between Newark and Heathrow and the U.S. Department of Defense air filtration study conducted aboard United aircraft have not only added to the scientific data, but have demonstrated almost nonexistent rates of viral transmission aboard an aircraft.
And now, through the mobile app, travelers can upload their verified test results and certificate of vaccination prior to international travel. All this with the vaccination campaign efforts by both governments, there is no longer any motivation to further delay the reopening of these essential air routes. We are ready."
As for smaller U.S. companies, JetBlue was also present at the summit. The "Taxi of the Skies" secured 75 slots for JFK, now the revolution: with the landing in Europe.
The connection the company wants to inaugurate will be a New York - London, hoping that the reopening with the UK will be imminent, for this reason Robin Hayes, chief executive officer of JetBlue, added at the conference:
"The increase in travel in recent weeks has been remarkable as the number of cases decreases and vaccination rates increase. We are confident that travel demand between the United States and the United Kingdom will follow a similar pattern of recovery with an established travel corridor between the two countries.
As international destinations are available to travelers through our network in Latin America and the Caribbean and travel has been made easier with fewer border restrictions, we have seen a significant increase in the number of people flying to these destinations.
Data have shown that people can travel safely when certain health and safety protocols remain in place, and we believe the UK should implement border restrictions similar to those that have already been successful in many other countries."
A recent York Aviation report stated that a second "lost summer" of international travel would result in 55.7 billion of pounds in trade lost, in addition to the 3 billion pounds in the GDP of the tourism sector gone up in smoke, should the reopening be delayed until September. If international travel remains limited, it will cost the U.S. economy 325 billion dollars in total losses and 1.1 million jobs by the end of 2021 (US Travel Association estimate).
"The millions of U.S. travel jobs lost due to the pandemic cannot be replaced without the return of international visitors, and the U.K. is our number one foreign travel market.
Advancing a science-based approach to restarting international travel is critical, and a U.S.-U.K. corridor is a logical place to start because of the two countries' excellent track record on immunization and declining infections, as well as their strong relationship."
Roger Dow, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association
The group encouraged the U.S. government to consider theabolition of requirements of entry for U.K. travelers who provided a negative Covid test before arriving in the United States or are Fully vaccinated.
On the UK side, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been asked to consider eliminating the requirement (for travelers returning to the UK from "green list" countries) to undergo an expensive and time-consuming test PCR upon arrival, instead requiring rapid testing in nursing homes and schools.
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