6th Apr 2021 09:37
(Alliance News) - Requiring UK holidaymakers returning from low-risk countries to pay for two coronavirus tests will only reopen international travel "for people who can afford it", the boss of easyJet PLC has warned.
Chief Executive Johan Lundgren claimed passengers should not face "more complexities and cost" for visiting "green" destinations.
On Monday, the UK government unveiled the outline of a traffic light system for enabling overseas leisure travel to resume as part of the easing of coronavirus restrictions.
Assessments will be based on a range of factors, including the proportion of a country's population which has been vaccinated, rates of infection, emerging new variants and the country's access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.
Travellers returning from countries rated "green" will not be required to self-isolate, although pre-departure and post-arrival tests will still be needed.
Lundgren told BBC Breakfast: "It should not be needed to put any more complexities and cost in order to travel to and from those destinations."
He said PCR tests are "way over and above what the cost is of an average easyJet fare".
If travellers are forced to pay for those tests, then "you wouldn't open up international travel for everyone, you would open up international travel for people who can afford it," Lundgren claimed.
He went on: "I don't think that is fair, I don't think it's right, and I don't think it is necessarily established from a medical and scientific point of view that is the right thing to do.
"If they choose, however, to go down that route to have the tests in place, it should be the same type of testing, the lateral flow testing, which is much cheaper, more accessible, that is being used to open up the domestic sector as an example."
By Neil Lancefield, PA Transport Correspondent
source: PA
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