If not by the end of January, the government will confirm the removal of Covid tests on arrival for fully-vaccinated travellers.
There is concern that a lack of international harmonisation could lead to conflicting expiry dates for vaccination certificates.
Industry sources in talks with the government said that Grant Shapps has been considering removing arrival tests for vaccine recipients for some time. The passenger locator form is set to remain along with the option to retest.
An aviation source told Travel Weekly that the devolved administrations will make their own decisions. There needs to be a framework for stepping back up.
Since the government dropped pre-departure tests for those travelling to the UK, the industry wants a proper plan to deal with future variations. The source said that they wanted to know the approach in advance, but that the government wouldn't do that.
The validity of vaccination certificates is a key area. Some countries in Europe have an expiry date of nine months since the last jab. We need international alignment.
The market will shrink if the baseline is too high. Iata has a baseline of 12 months. A lot depends on the level of vaccine required. We might not need a lot of boosters.
The second source warned that nine months will probably become general.
The PLF needs to be simplified. Contact tracing is ridiculous if there is no arrival test. The calls to remove the PLF are not correct.
The PLF automatically uploads the vaccination status of travellers so airlines don't need to verify certificates. The verification is supplied by the government. The primary use of the PLF is to verify vaccination certificates.
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