Sajid Javid, the new health secretary, has been urged by leaders in the travel industry to urge Cabinet ministers to quickly reopen international travel. Otherwise, they could face more job losses and economic woes.In an effort to keep government from ignoring the summer peak, 14 heads of airlines, travel agencies, tourism groups, and unions signed a letter.It says: We implore your Cabinet colleagues and you to take decisive action to save jobs, businesses, and set the industry on the path to recovery in a risk-based way.Today, we see other countries with lower vaccination rates than the UK opening their borders to allow their citizens to travel again, particularly through recognition of their vaccination status.We are encouraged by the announcement from government that they intend to relax travel restrictions for people who have been fully vaccinated and travel to amber destinations.These changes, along with the lifting of July domestic restrictions, must be implemented as soon as possible if they are going to make a difference in the UK's travel industry.This plea to Javid is in response to weekend reports that quarantine might be scrapped for travellers from countries on the amber list, such as Spain and Portugal. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, will chair a Covid operations meeting on Monday to discuss the plan.Johnson will host a press conferee this afternoon to outline plans for the final steps of the government's roadmap. This will give businesses and the public more time in preparation. Javid will reveal the plans to Parliament.A spokesperson for Downing Street stated that Step 4 will begin Monday 19 July if all four conditions of the government's relaxation of Covid restrictions are met. After a review of all the data, this will be confirmed Monday 12 July.Red list border control, surge testing, community screening, and genome sequencing are all effective methods of finding new variants. They will continue to be used.Javid wrote in the Mail on Sunday: We are on track to July 19, and we must be open with people about how we can eliminate Covid. While the economic arguments are well-known, I find the health benefits of opening up equally compelling.The letter signed by Mark Tanzer, chief executive of Abta, and the heads at Advantage Travel Partnership, The Travel Network Group and Airlines UK also requests that the government intensify its engagement with counterparts in Europe and the US in order to help travel flows recover.The government's plans to mutually recognize vaccination certification with the EU are encouraging. This would be a continuation of the success of the NHS app and should include the ability for a negative test result to be proven, it states.Our industry and the people who worked there were the cornerstones of the UK's economy before the pandemic. We are the third most connected country in the world and allowed tens of thousands of UK citizens to travel abroad, either on business or for holidays.Our industry and the economy as a whole have been devastated by the pandemic.International travel supported more than 1.5 million jobs in the UK's economy before the pandemic. This included both tourism and aviation.However, thousands of jobs have been lost and many more are at risk. Our coalition gathered at a Travel Day of Action in Westminster on 23 June to demand safe return to international travel. This was done through proper implementation of the Global Travel Taskforces plan to a traffic-light system. The green list is being expanded in accordance with scientific evidence, with more restrictions and stronger red lists to protect against variants.We reiterated our call for tailored financial support including furlough extension. This recognizes that the ability of travel to trade and generate income has been slower than expected and, when compared to other areas of the domestic economy.Separately, Stansted and Manchester's owners will be taking their case to the High Court together with Ryanair and British Airways owner IAG. They want to make the government disclose the traffic light system data for border control.Charlie Conrish, chief of Manchester Airports Group, stated that despite the UK's vaccination advantage, European countries are clearly ahead of us in recovery.The UK government must be more flexible and open to international travel.
