tjcxx

Remember when BA broke the ash-cloud flight ban by putting 26 747s in the air with an early morning LHR arrival time.

ahmetdouas

Yes! I was at Oxford Circus tube at the same time pretty much and hardly found a seat on the Victoria line! The people are going out to the shops and the restaurants after working home all day, that's my understanding of it and that's what I did today for example. So sort of an 'evening' rush hour.

It's more a case of not 'checking documents' and making the government's lives difficult. Can you imagine the mess with HMG if none of the UK airlines check for passenger PCR certificates before entry into the UK? What are they going to do at the border, fine everyone 5000 pounds? It would be a general strike/covid mutiny!

To be honest, we are due a lot of catch ups next week when the mourning period is over, as I have no idea what's going on. Do I need a PCR when I come back to UK? Do I need rapid flow? Will I wait for 2 hours at the border? GR is open as of next week to UK tourists without quarantine, but things are still closed so I think it will be around May when we see the big rush. I can see the online booking sites crashing the second the UK govt announces travel corridors early May.

I am going to 5-6 bars/restauraunts a night, I am so happy and the mood is great on the streets, people are in euphoria and smiles all round!

alex67500

There are many things that HMG could do. What you suggest would likely end up with cancelled or suspended AOCs for failure to comply with Public Health Laws. Other countries wouldn't allow airlines without an AOC in their airspace.

cauchy

BA holidays can include a free "meet a timeshare representative" timeslot with all bookings...

cauchy

It would depend on the finances, but it's not like IAG is without options. For a start, they could decide to just suspend all passenger service, without exception, indefinitely, if the current stop-start-stop travel arrangements just end up burning more cash. Or, long term IAG could do something like transfer more of the A320s to Vueling, base them in Europe and generally divest from the UK and LHR. This will make life difficult for the government.

ahmetdouas

There is no way HMG would ever consider banning BA and Easyjet from the skies, it's not happening. Likely some sort of compromise, don't forget we don't even know whats happening after May 17, we just have some idea from the travel report thing. Boris has not announced anything yet.

Already shots fired in tomorrows Times, they report that Home Office is hiring an outsourced firm Mitie to check 10,000 ppl a day if they are quarantining or not. What could go wrong? Here is the govt announcement on that.

​​​​​​https://www.gov.uk/government/news/n...ine-compliance

cauchy

Last summer we saw a good number of days with over 100k international arrivals into the UK. So depending on how extensive the amber travel list is and how this affects travel, this could mean up to 1 million people under quarantine. 10k checks a day is 1% of this maximum figure...

Though, this might be a convenient way of getting rid of the red list hotel jails.

HB7

We still have no idea whether travel will actually restart on the 17th of May in any shape/form and we have been told "early May" for when this "magic list of countries" materialises. From what I'm seeing/hearing, it seems like the May 17 date will be severely pushed back, or it will be legal to travel for any reason but no green countries will exist - so effectively the exact same situation as we have now for arrivals.

If any of the above is true, BA et al surely have to consider what they will do. Because at this rate, travel will be stopped forever if Whitty has his way. IAG and many other airlines can just say "we've had enough" and just cut all passenger services altogether from the UK as cauchy mentioned earlier and then that will bring a lot of pain to the UK government. It's about time Boris actually governs and starts leading, instead of leaving it in Chris Whitty's hands.

JEM_NYC

I have flights booked from NYC to LHR in June (and July and August...) in hope of some kind of travel corridor opening soon. This is the longest I’ve gone without visiting my other favorite city since my first trip in 1992. Do you all still have a Queen? And scones with clotted cream? And great Indian food?
I’ve been hearing a lot about pubs lately, so I guess they are ok! Cheers!

JEM_NYC

Does it ever seem like, perhaps, Boris is a bit overmatched by the whole “governing” thing? The US found a guy who is into that old-school governing, perhaps our cousins across the pond should do the same.

13901

As much as I like a good Boris bashing - it's mostly justified and, frankly, the man deserves it - can it be that Paul Charles' cryptic tweet has just been sent out for the LOLz?

Back in the day Alex was vocally against the government and Willie, well, he never minced his words on the press, didn't he? And the same happened through the rank & file of management, including those who liaised with HMG.

I don't see things changing right now, or much of a difference. Government dithers, considers air transport as an ATM to tax the hell out of or a security threat. And a nuisance for the wealthy parts of West London that it overflies so that when Zac Goldsmith had a chance of becoming mayor they were even more against it. What can airlines do? Not much. BA stopping flying will hurt BA a lot more than it'd hurt the government, let's face it. They sure can divest in the UK but, honestly, that was already the case: Ante Covid the projected growth rate (and thus investment) in BA was outpaced by the one of IB and EI and I also think Vueling.

As for Mitie doing the checks... I hope it goes better than when they were given the NHS cleaning contracts, or the Immigration removal centres management gig, or a Covid testing facility in the Highlands.

KSVVZ2015

the fact there will be few to no green countries to start has been pretty well know for a while. If there is a suggested delay to May 17 - care to share the source?

corporate-wage-slave

I can say the final decision has not been made, and there is not much point in making decisions given that this virus is really only predictable over a 2 week time frame. Some aspects go longer, so any analysis of how well a country is and will be vaccinated, how much genome sequencing they are doing, is fairly clear now. But confirmed case rates and variants of concern are very difficult to predict. The 17 May day is still the working assumption. Green countries, well if decided now it's the usual suspects mentioned repeatedly above - USA, Israel, Malta, Gibraltar. Beyond that, no-one can know. Plus of course this is a 2 way thing, places like Portugal and USA have greatly restricted travel, it's not all UK centric. On the plus side, the weather is getting warmer and the pandemic's evolution in most Western countries means that most places will go into the May-September period at a lower and more controlled level than in 2020.

DaveS

There will be a lot of (financial) pressure on the government to get the travel sector sorted. With many of the staff on furlough, travel is a large burden on the government finances and it is not sustainable. Flicking the go switch can remove that burden, but only if it does not lead to furlough turning into unemployment. I am still optimistic that holiday travel will return in a meaningful way soon after May 17th and certainly before the mass holiday market starts in July when the schools finish. All of our data is heading the right way, as is the weather. And at the very least, the weather will put the holiday destinations of southern Europe in a better place too before too long.

Silver Fox

It's Mitie. Everything. Absolutely everything.