Heathrow Airport requests the UK government to accept vaccinated travellers

Britain’s Heathrow Airport called on the government to open up the country to vaccinated travellers from the United States and the European Union from this month to help the travel industry to recover soon.

Before the pandemic, Heathrow was considered the busiest airport in Europe. The airport administration said that less than four million people travelled through Heathrow at the beginning of 2021.

On Monday, John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow Chief Executive, said in a statement that the UK is going backwards compared to its EU rivals in international trade because of its slow actions in removing restrictions.

For the six months to this June, Heathrow published a calculated loss before tax of 780 million pounds, equal to $1.09 billion, compared to the 472 million loss for the same time last year, which is not even a half of this year.

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On Monday, London’s Heathrow Airport decided to urge Britain to accept vaccinated passengers after the country’s recovery dropped behind Europe, pushing its total pandemic losses to more than $4 billion.

The airport administration also said that it believes Heathrow will receive 22.5 million passengers in 2021. According to them, it would result from the high demand for holidays and increased vaccinated people.

Besides some requests from the airport, Britain’s travel industry remains plagued by surging COVID-19 cases in the country as well as globally. This situation has an effect on the government’s actions and caution, which causes last-minute changes and flight cancellations.

Heathrow airport also said it increased liquidity to 4.9 billion pounds, equal to $6.61 billion. It added that it seeks rejection of its Finance ICR covenant for the financial year because of pressures on its cash flow.

Heathrow posted a total loss for the six months of 2021 before tax of 788 million pounds, which was only half affected by the pandemic compared to the loss for the same period last year.