A prepared statement by Transport Secretary of State Grant Shapps at last week’s ABTA Travel Convention contained no news at all for an industry that has been virtually halted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

He reiterated plans for a government task force to create a new testing regime to open the UK to international travel and claimed when questioned by moderator Chris Shipp of ITV that the Government had spent “Billions of pounds in supporting industry,” pronouncing that travel was top of the list.

It drew a sharp response from ABTA Chief Executive Mark Tanzer who said “we’ve yet to see evidence” of the work Shapps has done for the sector.

Mr Shapps ruled out the possibility of testing passengers at airports moments after they land, saying that he was “certain” this would allow many asymptomatic people to spread the virus in the UK, despite a similar system being used by at least 30 countries. This was in direct contrast to Heathrow’s checking system already in place and ready to go.

Under new Government proposals travellers will have to take  the test in person after a week, rather than sending a sample to a lab. This would be carried out at a private lab at travellers’ expense — about £150 a test — to avoid overloading the NHS, he said.

On a positive note Mr Shapps said that the Government was working on an “internationally recognised” system in which “tests and perhaps isolation take place prior to travel ….. and we would require no quarantine.”  Speculation has mounted that this system will be trialled on some flights between London and New York, the busiest long-haul route.

In a statement British Airways said: “We believe that we need to move to a pre-flight testing regime where travellers arriving in the UK all have a negative test up to 72 hours before flying. This is rapidly becoming the industry model.”

Mr Shapps is ‘on parade’, 19 October, at another virtual conference (see Airlines 2050 Monday morning in this week's BTN).  His interrogator this time will be Peggy Hollinger of the Financial Times.

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