HB7

According to HFP, British Airways will place all managers on furlough from Monday:

https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/0...ge-1/#comments

Thanks to the demolition of travel in this country by HMG, I can only imagine this is the beginning of many cost-cutting measures by BA and other airlines in the UK, through absolutely no fault of their own. HMG is intent it seems on the travel industry being wiped out when all is said and done.

Never Stansted

Very sorry for those affected. There has been a lot of thoughtful work by the BA team at LHR throughout the pandemic.

Travel only exists for world leaders to fly to Cornwall for an in-person meeting that could have been a Zoom call now. Don't want to become one of those conspiracy theorists who think that the war on travel is designed to create new norms driven by environmental policy, but I can see why they reach the conclusions they do.

Jumbodriver

I think all of us in this industry would appreciate some support right now.

International travel has been demonised.

Nobody is asking for unlimited travel, but, what�s the risk in letting a double vaccinated person travel to Malta?

Write to your MP

Please.

If European travel from the U.K. is ruled out for this summer then the U.K. based industry will die.

HIDDY

I'm surprised it took this long to be honest.
You have to realise that while things in the UK are looking a lot better the situation in many countries is still very dire.

TomMM

While here in the US we are hitting 70% of pre-pandemic travel levels.....

1Aturnleft

Not internationally you're not.

BRITINJAPAN4

There is a world outside of the US !!?? Really !

Lefly

It seems they don't want European travel to the UK as well, not even transit if not done same day.

BOH

It's all designed to cut down on travel for environmental reasons now - now all being done by stealth.

sigma421

Without getting too much into OMNI territory I really don’t think this is the case. The UK government looks at polls, sees that keeping hard travel restrictions is popular, realises this is not an industry the public is going to demand support for and keeps the restrictions in place.

I think there is also a belief that introducing vaccine requirements for travel/quarantine reduction is a hot potato that they don’t want to touch yet - cowardly yes but rational given the current political setup here.

FlyerTalker324193

+1

I am no BA fanboi by any means but I thought BA staff was pretty creative during the crisis. Other airlines thought of nothing but cost cutting, instead BA impressed me with innovations in the lounges and well thought-out measures for BAEC.

Really sorry for the tought times for the employees, management or not. BJ went laizzes-faire early in the pandemic and is now over-compensating by going authoritarian. The UK had 8 covid deaths yesterday, the current measures are blown out of proportion to the situation on the ground.

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

Sorry @Jumbodriver, whilst really feeling for you and also those in entertainment and hospitality, I�m all tapped out writing to my MP. Like them all she is scientifically illiterate and driven by skewed opinion polls and, in her case, the wish to keep her ministerial role. I have written many times throughout this crisis and just receive, eventually, a cut and paste response which does not answer any of my points. As a science graduate I have tried to spell things out simply but they just don�t want to know. I truly believe they see anything other than zero Covid as a political failure and everything else can be sacrificed to obtain that impossible goal. There is, no doubt, also a convenient gain to the green lobby of keeping us all grounded for as long as possible.
As a nation we are squandering our vaccine advantage and with it throwing away our flag carrier, amongst other worthwhile organisations.
BA is still my favourite airline with all its faults. I do hope it survives.

BOH

Yet allowing greater freedom of travel for those double vaccinated is entirely logical, Trouble is, everyone in authority is so petrified of being accused of discrimination for virtually every policy decision made nowadays. Coupled with a generation (me-me-me / entitled / snowflake?) of people that firmly believe that unless every person with every single medical condition / belief etc can travel, nobody else should be allowed to. The anti-vaxers will shout until the cows come home that they are being discriminated against if those vaccinated are able to travel but they can't.

This is absolutely killing the travel industry!

HB7

It's a disgrace what this government has done to the industry, and we all know it is purely political and not backed by data or evidence. I've written to my MP, tried to be vocal on forums and social media. It is heartbreaking to say the least how this industry is being destroyed before our very eyes.

lost_in_translation

I would tend to agree the UK rules are now slightly over-restrictive, which seems as a result of the decision to delay putting India on the red list which was incomprehensible to me at the time and remains incomprehensible to me now. However, whilst people with a stake in this are understandably angry, I would prefer if we restrained from unnecessary name calling and broad generalisations. I find talk of an 'entitled' group of people who are unvaccinated particularly inappropriate in the UK. Maybe in the US this has currency, but in the UK you are not talking mostly about anti-vaxxers, you are talking about young people who haven't been given the chance of a vaccine and have largely selflessly put their lives on hold to protect others over the last 15 months, have been the most likely group to lose their jobs because of COVID and have generally been told they are completely unimportant. You might want to consider the consequences of that.