The Airlines 2021 conference heard calls for nations, particularly in the EU, to coordinate testing and Passenger Locator Form requirements.
KLM president and chief executive Pieter Elbers said: “What we have seen over the last 21 months is anything but harmonisation. Even within the EU they have 26 different rules. Our first priority is to push for harmonisation.”
EasyJet chief commercial officer Sophie Dekkers said: “It’s over-complicated. There is so much variety by destination; that needs to change. The first step is to get some consistency; something that makes it easier for customers.”
EasyJet’s capacity is 50% Europe-based, where fully vaccinated travellers have not had to test since 1 July. “We have really seen the difference it makes having testing and not having testing,” she said.
Iata UK and Ireland country manager Simon McNamara warned there would be no complete freedoms short-term: “Think about 9/11 and the security restrictions we still have today,” he said. “The reality is it is going to be complicated. The message is the crisis is not over.”
He said information on gov.uk was not clear for travellers and described Passenger Locator Forms as “a nightmare”. “We need to fix that,” he said. “Try to navigate that as a non-native speaker.”
Airlines hope the UK government will dispense with these requirements in its January review.
Wizz Air UK managing director Marion Geoffroy said: “The whole point of vaccination was to avoid this and that is really not the case. It is obviously discouraging a lot of travellers.”
She said customers “are queuing on average four to five times for a point-to-point flight” as documents are checked, with confusion among travellers over what is needed.
“We have really tried to provide as much information for customers, but we can only guide them towards other websites, because if we say something on Monday it is maybe not valid on Tuesday.”
Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles added consumers “now have to be incredibly confident or incredibly determined” to travel.
“The sooner we can – I would not even say stabilise it – just sweep it away, the faster the industry recovery will be. We cannot have this forever and a day.”
Geoffroy added: “Unfortunately, we will have to live with this virus for the next decade. This is why I strongly support a review of the testing regime for those that are fully vaxxed.”
She said European countries would reach “70-80%” vaccination rates by next summer, making it safe to travel. “If we don’t do it, we will never do it, because there will always be somewhere there is a trace of the virus.”
