Airlines respond to Portugal international travel announcement – “a decision that just adds to the belief that Ministers don’t actually want international travel this summer, and want to cut off the UK from the rest of the world”

June 3rd, 2021

Commenting on the decision to remove Portugal from the international travel Green list, Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, the industry body representing UK-registered carriers, said:

“This is a fresh body blow for families desperate to get away and see their loved ones this summer, and the hundreds of thousands of people who work in the travel industry, who are in grave danger of being forgotten. Despite vaccinating millions more people both in the UK and Portugal, we have actually gone backwards since the original country list was published. The vaccine dividend we had built up has now been eroded, and the UK will fall further behind the rest of the EU who are safely opening up their tourism sectors and removing restrictions for vaccinated passengers.

“This is no way to treat passengers. The Government promised a Green watchlist to avoid this very scenario of people being stranded overseas – where is it? This decision just adds to the belief that Ministers don’t actually want international travel this summer, and want to cut off the UK from the rest of the world despite the success of the vaccination programme. If that is the case they should be open and tell us rather than leading us and our customers further down this painful merry dance, and put in place longer-term support measures for an industry now on its knees.”