Government pressed over plan to allow bosses to avoid travel quarantine
Business travellers could be given rapid virus tests to allow them to avoid a two-week quarantine on returning to the UK, under industry plans being lobbied to Government.
Bosses in the business travel agency industry today wrote to home secretary Priti Patel and transport secretary Grant Shapps outlining the proposals.
The British Travel Association’s plan would see travellers between any UK airport and Europe’s three biggest business travel destination – Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam – book PCR infection tests ahead of arriving in Britain.
The results take an hour to come back, and the BTA said the scheme could be up and running in seven days. It estimates business travel contributes £600 million a day to the UK’s GDP.
The Government’s requirement for travellers coming into the UK to self-isolate for 14 days came in on Monday and has been blasted by bosses across the travel industry.
On Monday, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary labelled the rules “rubbish” and said travellers were ignoring it.
BTA chief executive Clive Wratten said: “This pilot can restore confidence across the business community that there is a practical, safe and immediate alternative to the stranglehold of quarantine…
“Without this scheme and under current quarantine measures, tens of thousands of jobs across the business travel supply chain are at risk of being lost forever.”
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