Mr Shapps emphasised the need to give confidence to both passengers and the operators. His vague words regarding the so called 14-day rule did not go down well with the air transport industry.
Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, the industry association representing UK-registered carriers, said: “Public health must of course be the priority and we respect the Sage advice. We all – including Government – need to adapt to the new normal but closing off air travel in this way is not the way to achieve this. Ministers are effectively telling people they can no longer travel for the foreseeable future and airlines will respond to that by grounding their operations – and that is why they require urgent additional Government support to get through this growing crisis.”...more