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Four nations must ‘work together’ to reopen travel

Government
Rob Gill
25 February 2021

Pilots’ union Balpa has written to the three devolved governments of the UK to call for a “co-ordinated” UK-wide approach to reopening air travel.

Gatwick is seeking permission to bring its standby runway into routine use

The UK government has announced that a reformed Global Travel Taskforce will look at how to reopen international travel from England, with its recommendations due by 12 April and travel not resuming before 17 May “at the earliest”.

The government also hopes that a “four nations” approach can be adopted to resume air travel throughout the UK – a move that Balpa said it “strongly supports” and the union has written to the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations to make this case.

Brian Strutton, Balpa’s general secretary, added: “It is vital that we find a way to safely reopen air travel. We know there is huge pent-up demand from the public to get flying again.