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UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak wrote to Boris Johnson urging the prime minister to ease travel restrictions because he said they were hurting the country’s economy and tourism, The Sunday Times reported.
Sunak continued to say in the letter that the country’s border policy was out of step with international competitors, according to the newspaper.
The chancellor is concerned that the restrictions in place were harming UK companies that were competing with European counterparts in conducting business with US companies.
Ministers won’t have access to data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre until early this week and will discuss travel restrictions at a meeting on Thursday.
About 10 countries are expected to be moved from the amber to the green list, while France will probably revert to amber from “amber plus” – fully vaccinated visitors currently have to go into quarantine on their return.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
As reported by Arabian Business last week, latest exclusive data released by the British Travel Association (BTA), revealed the UAE’s red list status cost the UK £59 million ($82m) for the third week in July.
On Wednesday, the UK announced that visitors to the country from the European Union and United States would be allowed to arrive without the need for quarantine, as of next week.
However, there was no mention of any potential relaxation of rules surrounding the UAE, which has languished on the UK’s red list since the end of January.
The UAE’s status on the list has pummelled what was formerly one of the world’s busiest air routes. Dubai-based Emirates used to operate roughly 20 flights a day to the UK, but that has been slashed by around 80 percent.
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said the UAE is on the red list because it is a major transit hub, rather than due to the country’s handling of the pandemic, which has been one of the most effective in the world.
Middle East airlines posted a 79.4 percent demand drop in June compared to the same month in 2019.
Further evidence of this has come with the news that the UAE reported its lowest number of new Covid-19 cases this year in July. Figures reveal there were just over 47,900 cases confirmed last month – an average of around 1,540 per day – down from the previous low of 50,500 revealed in May.
However, the recovery of the aviation industry across the region continues to be a slow process.
According to the latest statistics from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Middle East airlines posted a 79.4 percent demand drop in June compared to the same month in 2019, although this was an improvement from the 81.3 percent decrease in May, against May 2019.
Capacity declined 65.3 percent and load factor deteriorated 31.1 percentage points to 45.3 percent.
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