Business travellers are cancelling flights over concerns that they could be trapped overseas by travel restrictions triggered by the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
Heathrow airport’s boss said that demand in November had been dampened by new government restrictions, with passenger numbers down 60 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, despite the reopening of the United States to transatlantic travel.
John Holland-Kaye, 56, the airport’s chief executive, said that he was not expecting international travel to bounce back to 2019 levels until all restrictions had been removed and there was no risk of new ones such as quarantines. “This is likely to be several years away,” he warned.
Figures released yesterday show that the start of a gradual recovery in October, when demand was down 56 per cent, had petered out.
Heathrow is 25 per cent-owned by Ferrovial, the Spanish conglomerate. Qatar, the largest investor in British Airways, Heathrow’s biggest customer, owns 20 per cent. Another six investors hold the rest.
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Holland-Kaye called on the government to reduce restrictions as soon as it was safe to do so, including allowing British nationals arriving from red list countries to isolate at home. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely as possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow,” he said. “Let’s reunite families for Christmas.”
The airport said that an early signal that aviation could restart soon would “give employers at Heathrow the confidence to start recruiting and training”.
