In July a cross-party group of more than 70 parliamentarians called for an extension to the job protection scheme for workers in the travel, tourism and aviation sectors.

Since last month employers have had to cover an additional 10% of furloughed employees wages, which rose to 20% at the start of August.

Speaking to the BBC, McMahon said "it’s just not good enough" that the government plans to end the scheme in September, and the travel industry "hasn’t had the ability" to recover over the summer.

"Travel, tourism and aviation have not had the ability to recover over the summer to save those jobs, the government need to do far more, both to get a simplified system in place, but then also the financial support package to make sure that we don’t see a cliff edge in September," he added.

"We started saying three or four months ago, which would have given the government plenty of time to learn from the mistakes that were made in the early part of the pandemic, put that right and have a coherent plan in place for dealing with summer."