Birmingham Airport calls for more clarity on testing rules
Plans to require international travellers to test negative for coronavirus before arriving to England and Scotland have been welcomed – but do not go far enough, Birmingham Airport said today.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps set out new rules which, from next week, will require passengers arriving in England by boat, train or plane – including UK nationals – to take a test up to 72 hours before leaving the country of departure.
Failure to comply will lead to an immediate £500 fine.
Birmingham Airport called for more clarity on the rules, particularly on the requirement for people to quarantine.
A statement from Birmingham Airport, said: “Although we welcome pre-departure testing, which is already in place in many overseas countries, we would like to see the removal of the quarantine period all together in time, and a global standard developed to give consumers clarity and confidence when travelling.”
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Heathrow’s chief executive warned the new rules will be “a real challenge” for some passengers due to varying testing facilities in other countries.
John Holland-Kaye called on the Government to take the lead in creating a “common international standard for testing” to replace current “confusing” differences between nations.
He said his airport had the capacity to test up to 25,000 people a day – used to help departing passengers meet other countries’ inbound tourism requirements – but other airports around the world lacked such facilities.
“If you’re caught out in one of those countries, and you now have these new requirements, then you’ll find it quite difficult to get the tests that are needed in order to come back home again. And that’s going to be a real challenge for a lot of passengers,” said Mr Holland-Kaye.
He welcomed the new rules to help get the virus under control, but said they should be “temporary” and that Government must set out a “roadmap” for testing international travellers in the future.
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said he “strongly supports” the measures being in place once Wales begins welcoming international travellers again.
Mr Shapps said the new rules became a “much more urgent” requirement due to the spread of new coronavirus strains.
He said: “This is an extra check and we’re doing this now because there are these variants that we’re very keen to keep out of the country, like the South African variant, for example.
“There are the concerns about the South African one in particular about how effective the vaccine would be against it so we simply cannot take chances.”
He also defended the Government against allegations it should have moved sooner to close the border during the pandemic, arguing the UK as an island needed the movement of goods and people.
“Look what happened in the United States, for example, where they did last March entirely closed the border,” he said. “It hasn’t helped them at all, not one iota.”
