NW airport bosses demand clearer route ahead as new hotel lockdown for travellers returning to UK beckons

North West airport bosses have called on the Government to provide more clarity and give more support to their industry.

Their appeal to protect jobs and help boost confidence came as they waited to hear if the Government is to impose tough airport hotel quarantine on all incoming travellers returning from abroad.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was considering ordering travellers arriving from high Covid risk locations abroad to quarantine in hotels to cut the danger of the new more virulent strain of Covid being brought into the UK from overseas.

Ben Clifton, Head of Communications at MAG (Manchester Airport Group), which comprises Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, said: “We fully understand the need for the current restrictions, but the Government needs to set out a full support package for aviation, including a clear plan for how we can get people flying again (particularly ahead of the summer) when the health picture improves.”

Meanwhile at Liverpool John Lennon airport a spokesman said: “We support the measures in place to control the spread of new variants of the virus, however the aviation industry needs Government to set out a ‘road map’ as to how these restrictions will be lifted so that that air travel can restart in the coming weeks and to help build consumer confidence ahead of the important summer season.

“In the meantime UK airports will need further Government support in order to maintain airport operations to enable key air services to continue to operate and for jobs at airports to be supported.”

Earlier the Prime Minister said the Government was “definitely looking at” the possibility of travellers arriving in the UK being required to quarantine in hotels. He said:“We have to realise there is at least the theoretical risk of a new variant that is a vaccine-busting variant coming in, we’ve got to be able to keep that under control. We want to make sure that we protect our population, protect this country against reinfection from abroad. That idea of looking at hotels is certainly one thing we’re actively now working on. We need a solution that gives us the maximum possible protection against reinfection from abroad.”

In the immediate future neither Manchester or Liverpool airports predicts logistical problems due to the fall in numbers of passengers.

The spokesman for Liverpool John Lennon added:“In the short term there is no impact for us as passengers cannot currently travel on international flights unless it is essential and as a consequence we now have just 16 departures in total this week and nearly all are domestic.”

Most of those flying in to the airport had been on domestic flights.

He said there are no current plans for further job losses at Liverpool, adding: “We had to make some redundancies earlier last year, since then we’ve not had to.”

Calling for a clearer route ahead he said: “Our staff have been incredibly flexible, coming in for an hour here and there. We all want to get people back to travelling again. We support the measures in place. We know we have to tackle the virus.”

* Individual airlines have responsibility for managing Coronavirus health checks and ensuring travellers have had pre-flight Covid tests before passengers board planes to the UK.

Once they arrive in the UK Border Force is responsible for further checks. Travel is currently restricted to essential travel only. For full details see: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

*Last December Manchester Airport was reported to be considering 400+ redundancies.

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