UK airlines welcome EU announcement on reopening international travel & urge UK to follow suit in recognising game-changing vaccination rollout

May 3rd, 2021

Commenting on the announcement by the European Commission that vaccinated passengers will be able to travel to the EU this summer, Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, the industry body representing UK-registered carriers, said:

“This is an extremely important announcement that will pave the way for the reopening of the EU’s tourism and travel industry in time for the peak summer season. The EU should be congratulated for recognising that the success of the vaccine rollout – coupled with sensible vigilance around variants – is a game-changer that can and should enable a risk-based and proportionate system of international travel to resume. It is frustrating that the UK has not gone down the same road, with Ministers here still reluctant to acknowledge that we can be more ambitious with our own plans, taking advantage of one of the most impressive vaccination programmes in the world, alongside quicker, cheaper testing and our globally renowned genomic sequencing capability. It’s about getting the risk balance right and we don’t believe the UK has done that yet.”