The Irish airline Ryanair and several British airports will launch, this Thursday, a legal action against the government of the United Kingdom in order to obtain more transparency in the health measures on international travel.

The complaint will be filed in the morning, said the MAG group (Manchester Airports Group) which manages Manchester and Stansted airports in London.

MAG specifies that besides Ryanair, other airlines should support the procedure and be cited in court documents.

The airline industry criticizes inconsistencies

The objective is to force the British government to explain how it takes its decisions to establish the lists, "green", "orange" and "red", which correspond to degrees of health risk linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and which govern international travel from the UK. The airline industry has been relentless in recent weeks lashing out at inconsistencies or government reversals, ensuring that travel to sunny destinations in Europe was safe given progress in vaccination and declining numbers of people. case.

Since Portugal's withdrawal, no major European tourist country has appeared on the “green” list, which allows visitors to return to the United Kingdom without quarantine.

Spain, Italy, France and Greece, and therefore Portugal, are on the “orange” list, forcing travelers from these countries to spend up to ten days in quarantine and undergo two screenings. paying.

The “red” list imposes a quarantine at the hotel at the expense of the traveler.

"Opaque" decisions

The complaint will directly target the ministers of health and transport and will attack the "opaque" way in which decisions are made, which according to the sector makes it difficult for holidaymakers to book their stays and for companies and airports of. prepare for the recovery.

"Recent developments suggest that the government does not want to reopen international travel by placing low risk countries on the green list," said Charlie Cornish, CEO of MAG.

"Most countries seem stuck in the orange list for no obvious reason" despite lower contaminations than in the United Kingdom, he said.

For Michael O'Leary, Managing Director of Ryanair, “the UK traffic system has been a complete disaster from the start”.

Confidence to be regained

"We call on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to explain the scientific basis behind this system (...) and to establish a transparent model from the data that can restore confidence before the crucial period of the summer months," he said. he.

For its part, the Government said on Thursday that it would "examine the role of vaccinations" for passengers arriving in the United Kingdom.

According to a spokesperson, decisions on international travel "are constantly reassessed, and are based on a set of health factors."

Economy

Emirates: airline suffers annual losses of $ 5.5 billion

World

European Union: The Twenty-Seven agree on possible restrictions in case of variants

  • World

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • UK

  • Boris Johnson

  • Trip

  • Ryanair