Ahead of the G7 meeting in Cornwall, U.K. later this month, the heads of major airlines in both the U.S. and U.K. have convened a meeting to discuss the potential for reopening the transatlantic travel corridor between the two countries. The driver behind the push to lift restrictions on travel lies in the fact that both countries have substantially reduced the number of COVID-19 cases and vaccination programs are progressing well with 63.5% of U.S. citizens having received at least one dose of the vaccine, while that figure stands at around 75% for the U.K.
Those attending the meeting hosted by Duncan Edwards, Chief Executive of BritishAmerican Business, were American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, British Airways CEO and Chairman Sean Doyle, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes, United CEO Scott Kirby, U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow, and Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai. They discussed the merits of having the U.S. on the U.K.’s ‘green list’ (meaning travellers from the U.S. would no longer need to self-isolate on arrival in the U.K.), as well as the benefits that would arise from the U.S. lifting the U.K.-related travel ban.
The U.S. is the U.K.’s largest trading partner and U.K. businesses are losing £23 million daily while transatlantic links remain shut. In 2019, 900,000 tons of cargo also travelled between the two countries. The group has encouraged the U.S. government to consider lifting entry requirements for U.K. travellers who provide a negative COVID test prior to arriving in the U.S. or are fully vaccinated or can present proof of recovery after contracting the virus.
A recent York Aviation report stated that a second ‘lost summer’ of international travel would result in £55.7 billion in lost trade and £3.0 billion in tourism money if reopening is delayed until September. If international travel remained restricted, it would cost the U.S. economy US$325 billion in total losses and 1.1 million jobs by the end of 2021, according to analysis from the U.S. Travel Association. (£1.00 = US$1.42 at time of publication.)