Sean Doyle is focusing on re-establishing British Airways lucrative transatlantic routes, which have been obliterated by the Covid-19 outbreak.
British Airways’ new CEO has used his first public speech to call for the introduction of pre-departure tests and quarantine-free transatlantic travel corridors to aid the aviation industry’s recovery.
Sean Doyle, who replaced Alex Cruz last week in a management reshuffle at IAG, said during a keynote at the Airlines 2050 conference that the best way to reassure people is to introduce a reliable and affordable test before flying.
He also called for travel restrictions between the US and UK – BA’s most lucrative route prior to coronavirus – to be partially lifted.
“We need to work together on a testing pilot so flights can start between London and New York, traditionally one of the busiest airline routes in the world,” Mr Doyle said.
He said that BA now operates two flights between London and New York carrying fewer than 200 passengers, compared to 12 flights a day before coronavirus.
The former Aer Lingus boss also said that there needs to be a standardized global framework of virus testing to replace quarantines, which have been blamed for destroying passenger demand.
“Our position at British Airways is that we do not believe quarantine is the solution.
“If we look abroad to our near neighbours, we see that business travel and indeed tourism is being prioritised by some countries. We need to get our economy moving again and this just isn’t possible when you’re asking people to quarantine for 14 days. It’s our view that even if that quarantine period is reduced to say seven days, people won’t travel here and the UK will get left behind.”
BA has started to trial a rapid Covid test at London Heathrow Airport on routes to Hong Kong and Italy.
The optional test costs passengers £80 and can produce a result in 20 minutes. Currently PCR tests can take days to produce a result as they have to be sent to a laboratory.
The Lamp (Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) test is designed to make travel easier and smoother and increase passenger confidence.
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