This column was first published in Travel Weekly on 10 March 2022.

It’s hard to fathom that it is just over three months ago when the Omicron variant emerged, bringing a halt to the industry’s recovery. It feels like we’re living in an entirely different era – with the heart-wrenching scenes from war in Ukraine and a growing cost of living crisis.

Domestically, the Government has also outlined its plan to ‘live with COVID’. In that vein, we’re expecting the next Government review of travel rules to be announced in the coming weeks, and many of the issues we have been consistently raising with Government, in terms of the travel requirements being a barrier to travel, have already been acted upon. 

Government has plans to end to managed quarantine by the end of this month, tests are no longer required when returning to the UK (if you are fully vaccinated), and there have been initial moves to simplify travel for unvaccinated passengers. These developments show that the Government has been listening to ABTA and the wider industry, and that there is a growing understanding of the impact of travel measures on businesses. 

We’re also hoping to hear some good news from the review in relation to the Passenger Locator Form. While recent simplifications of the PLF have helped, the UK’s system for collecting passenger data remains much more complex than that used by many other countries, especially competitor markets in Europe. Given the Government’s approach to living with COVID, it is no longer clear why this measure is being retained, especially in a business-as-usual environment.
Linked to that point, we’ll also be paying particular attention to what the Government says about managing future variants. 

The arrival on Omicron led to a sudden introduction of additional measures, which stopped the industry’s recovery in its tracks and damaged consumer confidence during the peak booking period - many ABTA Members are still counting the cost.

It is critical the Government develops an evidence-based approach to dealing with any future variants to make sure we don’t have a repeat of December’s damaging policies, and to ensure measures adopted are effective. Restrictions must only be imposed when evidence and data show that the variant concerned poses a significant risk to UK public health and the vaccination programme, and policies adopted must be proportionate.

To date, there has been a lack of robust evidence from UK Government that travel restrictions have a significant role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 variants, and indeed the World Health Organisation has argued for many months that international travel should not be treated, in isolation, as a risk factor.

In fact, industry evidence in the form of the Edge Health report, commissioned by MAG and Airlines UK, found that the Omicron measures imposed only had relatively minimal impact on the spread of the virus and that once a variant is present and spreading within the domestic community, other measures would be better targeted than retaining restrictions on international travel. 

When considering any future measures in response to a variant that poses a genuine threat, Ministers should be clear about the objective of each measure (e.g. to slow transmission by X days), set out clearly how it will measure success of that objective (eg testing), and timelines that these measures will be reviewed and removed which provides the crucial reassurance that any restrictions are temporary. 

We’ve been speaking to Government officials and Ministers ahead of the review and have submitted our views. We have also shared evidence from Members on the impact the additional Omicron measures had on trade and businesses’ recovery. 

One of the main points we have been making is that the Government must be mindful of some of the lessons learnt over the course of the pandemic. 

Pre-departure testing decreased travel to a third of pre-pandemic levels, and it is clear that this form of testing is simply incompatible with recovery in our sector. Differences in approach between the four nations also caused confusion and complicated the consumer message on restrictions. 

It is unsustainable for the industry for international travel to be turned on and off like a tap in response to variants. What we need from Government is an approach that is a proportionate to the risk and temporary, then the industry can chart a course to recovery and consumers’ confidence will continue to grow. 

Luke Petherbridge, ABTA Director of Public Affairs