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LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - The chief executive of easyJet
said Britain was likely to be left behind the rest of
Europe if the government does not allow quarantine-free travel
to most of the continent when it announces where people can go
on Friday.
Britain is set to publish its "green list" of low risk
places where people can travel without needing to quarantine on
their return home, but reports suggest that just a handful of
countries will make the list, with major destinations like Spain
and Greece excluded.
A limited list will be a blow to UK-based easyJet, whose
home market is its biggest and which is counting on a big
pick-up in travel to help repair its finances after a year of
COVID-19 restrictions.
Chief Executive Johan Lundgren told the FT Live online
conference on Thursday that with Europe opening up it would be
ironic that the "UK, which has been the most advanced when it
comes to the rollout of the vaccination programme, is actually
going to find themselves left behind.
"I think this is going to need to change, it's going to need
to change very rapidly," he said.
Smaller holiday destinations such as Gibraltar, Iceland,
Israel and Malta are expected to make the green list, while
airlines and travel companies are hoping that bigger markets
like Portugal and the United States will also be on it.
Returning to the UK from a green list country will involve
taking two COVID-19 tests, one before arrival and one on or
before the second day of returning.
Britain has said that it will review travel plans again in
late June, meaning that easyJet and competitors Ryanair,
TUI, Jet2 and British Airways, could
be forced to wait for a larger scale re-opening of UK travel.
"There's a lot of things that need to come into place here
in order for us to have a strong summer but I still believe that
we'll have (one)," Lundgren said.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Paul Sandle and Jason
Neely)
