Last checked at 
* Heathrow CEO says U.S. visitors could soon be quarantine
exempt
* H1 adj pre-tax loss 787 mln stg vs 471 mln loss yr earlier
* Passenger levels about 20-25% of pre-pandemic levels
(Recasts with Airlines UK statement)
By Sarah Young
LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) - London's Heathrow Airport and
Britain's main airlines urged the UK to open up travel to
vaccinated passengers or face more job losses, as hopes rose
that travellers from the United States could be given the green
light this week.
Heathrow Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye said Britain
could exempt fully vaccinated U.S. citizens from quarantine in
the coming days, in what would be a huge boost to the country's
aviation industry which continues to be plagued by uncertainty.
Strict rules which the government has previously altered
with little notice has meant that Britain's travel sector
remains in the doldrums while Europe's has partially recovered.
Airlines UK, the industry body representing British Airways
, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and others, warned
more aviation jobs would go if the government did not make
changes at its next travel review expected later this week.
It wants quarantine to be scrapped for fully vaccinated
travellers from the United States and the European Union, with
more countries added to Britain's green list for low risk
travel.
Holland-Kaye noted the EU had opened up unilaterally with
the United States, adding: "There's no reason why the UK
shouldn't do the same. I think that could happen this week."
Heathrow, which before the pandemic was Europe's busiest
airport, said Britain's travel restrictions were suppressing
trade volumes and traveller demand, pushing its cumulative
pandemic losses to $4 billion.
Passenger levels at Heathrow were about 20-25% of their
pre-pandemic levels, while European airports are already back to
about 50%, said Holland-Kaye.
"Without the passenger planes going to global markets like
the U.S., UK exports aren't getting out of the country, and the
UK will fall behind and that will cost jobs, unless we open up,"
he told Reuters on Monday.
For the whole of 2021, Heathrow forecast 21.5 million
passengers would travel through its terminals, a big jump from 4
million in the first six months of the year as travel returns,
but a long way off the 81 million who used its facilities in
2019.
Holland-Kaye said he was encouraged by a recent pickup as
school holidays started. Separately Ryanair said it was
seeing strong summer bookings.
Heathrow said worries over potential new UK restrictions or
other countries barring UK travellers, had pushed it to seek a
waiver of its Heathrow Finance ICR covenant for 2021 to cover it
in case passenger numbers significantly miss its 21 million
forecast.
For the six months to June 30, Heathrow posted an adjusted
pretax loss of 787 million pounds, compared with a 471 million
loss for the same period last year.
($1 = 0.7274 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young
Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, David Holmes and David Evans)
