British Airlines Cry Foul Over the New Air Travel Quarantine Rules

In a move that has taken many by surprise, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps has said that the country would be putting all air passengers arriving in the country in a compulsory fourteen-day quarantine, once the restriction on air travel in the country is lifted. The measure which has been envisaged to restrict the second wave of the coronavirus into the country to stop a second wave which is already suffering from the spread of the virus that came to the country via passengers who arrived in the country in weeks before air travel was restricted in the country. The country which is now the fourth most affected country due to the pandemic is currently showing early signs of stabilization, raising hopes that the authorities will soon throw open the country for business. During the past one and half months since the lockdown has been in place, the entire economy has come to a grinding halt, risking many businesses in the country from going bust and millions of people have been rendered unemployed.

The British Airline industry, like the other airlines across the world, has been deeply battered by the pandemic. Starting in the Wuhan province of China, the pandemic has spread to almost all parts of the world at an incredible pace. Unlike other major pandemics that we have encountered the pace with which the pandemic attacked us made the whole world paralyzed. The maximum blame for the spread of the pandemic is being put on the airline industry, which has in a matter of hours if not days have taken the virus from one continent to another without giving enough opportunity to the health authorities to respond to the threat. It was thus obvious that air travel was first restricted by countries that did not want any infected people to come into their territory. The result of this move was that the airline industry thus was amongst the biggest sufferers of all industries in the world. Except for humanitarian missions or military missions, all aircraft in the world have been grounded. With the lockdown and quarantine periods across the world being extended, it is also difficult to say whether air travel will open anytime soon. Moreover, it is also certain that the timing of the opening of the countries will not be the same, whereby there will be further complications in airlines operating from one country to the other. The airline industry is also not being able to do much on its part to prevent the spread of the virus among its passengers. If social distancing measures were to be adopted inside an aeroplane, then most of the airlines will fly between half to one-third of their capacity, which will clearly be a loss-making proposition for them. The health authorities and experts have not been able to come up with solutions of how to restrict the spread of the virus in restricted spaces like an aircraft, which means that there is a high probability that general social distancing measures within an aircraft may not be very effective in spreading the virus.

Two of the major British airline companies Ryanair Plc and British Airways have already declared that they will be laying off thousands of their staff due to the lack of business. While reacting to the transport secretaries statement, they stated that these measures announced by the government would virtually kill air travel. They further warned that this move would almost isolate the United Kingdom from the rest of the world. Airlines UK, which is a representative of some of the major British airlines like British Airways, EasyJet, Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair stated in a statement that such a move would be detrimental to the British Airline industry as well as the British economy as a whole, as other countries have already started to open up their economies and sky. The industry body's chief executive, Tim Alderslade, further stated that current circumstances are not appropriate for the government to use such blunt tools that will harm the industry more than protecting it. Instead, he suggested that the United Kingdom should lead the world in setting new standards and protocols so that air travel becomes safer and the industry returns to the normal business at the earliest. The past three months have been very tough for the industry. Several airline companies across the world are on the verge of collapse. While some of the large companies of the world who have support from their national governments and deep-pocket investors are expected to tide through this crisis, but the same cannot be said for all the airline companies in the world. The situation of the employees in this industry is particularly worrisome as there has been no work for almost two months for them. While many of them have already lost their jobs, several are dealing with deep salary cuts. The biggest problem these people face, however, is that of re-employment. Since the whole industry is in doldrums, there are no takers for the skillsets of these people, who would now be facing the harsh reality of extended periods of unemployment.

Moreover, there is also a high possibility that air travel will not pick up in a big way when the restrictions on air travel are even lifted. The fear among people who have seen their lives turned upside down because of the pandemic will now be extra careful to protect themselves from not being infected by the virus. Since the memories of the spreading of the virus due to air travellers are fresh in everyone's minds, people will travel only due to extreme emergency reasons and will avoid travel for pleasure. Airline companies are aware of the same and are already contemplating their options keeping in mind the same.

The airline trade body is right in addressing the issue of a new set of measures are protocols to be in place before air travel resumes in the United Kingdom or anywhere in the world. The leadership class is currently so busy dealing with the pandemic that it is in no position to address the concerns of the industry. In the same spirit that the transport secretary is willing to put all incoming passengers into a fourteen-day quarantine, while the government should also come out with a set of protocols for air travel if it wants to avoid a second wave of infections.