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By Sarah Young
LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - The bosses of British Airways and
London's Heathrow Airport urged the government to go further in
easing restrictions around travel on Monday, saying links to
much of Europe and the United States should be opened up.
Britain lifted a ban on international travel on Monday but
the government has designated only 12 countries safe for
quarantine-free travel so far, limiting any industry recovery.
"It's clear to us that America should be on the green list,"
said BA CEO Sean Doyle. Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye said
France, Greece and Spain should also be added.
Ministers have said people should not go on holiday to those
countries which are not on the green list, and Prime Minister
Boris Johnson said on Friday that it would not be extended any
time soon because of the risk of new variants.
"I don't expect that we'll be adding to (the list) very
rapidly and indeed we will be maintaining a very, very tough
border regime for the foreseeable future," he said.
Britain has low overall rates of infection thanks largely to
the success of its vaccine rollout, but concerns are growing
about a fast-spreading variant first identified in India.
The emergence of the variant did not stop easing of
restrictions on Monday, including allowing friends to hug each
other. But it could knock off course the final step in lockdown
reopening planned for Jun.
Passengers at Heathrow, however, were relieved that Monday's
easing had gone ahead.
Erica Stolton, 29, heading to Madrid to introduce her baby
to her family said she had been waiting for a long time to be
allowed to travel.
"It feels absolutely magical. It's been really hard the
situation with this pandemic," she said.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; writing by Kate Holton, editing by
Paul Sandle and Michael Holden)
