Not less than 600,000 passengers cancelled plans to fly from Heathrow in December amid more durable journey restrictions and the Omicron variant turning into the ‘Scrooge which cancelled Christmas’.
Fears over the Covid variant meant that, from late November, all travellers arriving within the UK had been required to take a lateral movement check earlier than flying and self-isolate till they obtained a detrimental outcome from a post-arrival PCR check.
This led to many individuals scrapping their journey plans over the festive interval – which is often one of many busiest occasions of the yr outdoors summer time for worldwide journey from Britain.
A complete of 19.4 million folks travelled by Heathrow throughout the entire of final yr – lower than 1 / 4 of the pre-pandemic degree in 2019, and 12.3% down on 2020.
Susannah Streeter, senior funding and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, mentioned Omicron had been ‘the Scrooge which cancelled Christmas’ with ‘onerous testing necessities resulting in a mass exodus from airports’.
And Heathrow chief govt John Holland-Kaye mentioned: ‘There are at present journey restrictions, akin to testing, on all Heathrow routes.
‘The aviation trade will solely totally get better when these are all lifted and there’s no danger that they are going to be reimposed at brief discover, a scenario which is prone to be years away.’
A complete of 19.4 million folks travelled by Heathrow throughout the entire of final yr – lower than 1 / 4 of the pre-pandemic degree in 2019, and 12.3% down on 2020 (pictured: Heathrow on December 24)
Susannah Streeter, senior funding and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, mentioned Omicron had been ‘the Scrooge which cancelled Christmas’ with ‘ onerous testing necessities resulting in a mass exodus from airports’
A number of abroad locations – together with France and Germany – had introduced in their very own restrictions late final yr, successfully rendering the potential for a vacation inside their territory inconceivable amid the outbreak of Omicron.
Ms Streeter added: ‘Mass vaccination programmes did not have the specified impact in 2021, in bringing the rebound in journey there had been such excessive hopes for this time final yr.
‘The online of guidelines and rules which was spun throughout totally different international locations and areas and swept away, after which spun once more as new variants emerged, clearly led to a drop in confidence within the travelling public.
‘The specter of costly lodge quarantines following a fast rule change and the danger of being left stranded abroad if testing constructive had been hardly a calming prospect for holidaymakers eager to get away from all of it.
‘It means there was a lacklustre uplift in prospects of 12% in comparison with 2020, and for 2021 as an entire Heathrow dealt with simply 19.4 million passengers – lower than one quarter of pre-pandemic ranges.’
Ms Streeter added there was ‘little shock’ that Heathrow is now calling for scrapping all exams for totally vaccinated passengers in favour of a ‘predictable playbook to go by, within the even of recent variants’.
‘The spring summer time season is about to get hotter for Heathrow by way of enterprise, however it’s unlikely to be the scorcher the journey trade, and the retail and hospitality companies which depend on transport hubs, sorely want,’ she mentioned.
Fears over the Covid variant meant that, from late November, all travellers arriving within the UK had been required to take a lateral movement check earlier than flying and self-isolate till they obtained a detrimental outcome from a post-arrival PCR check (pictured: Heathrow on December 24)
One week earlier than Christmas Germany’s well being introduced that Britain had been added to its checklist of Covid high-risk international locations as a ‘virus variant space’, which means airways had been banned from transporting British vacationers to the nation.
Solely German residents and residents, their companions and kids, and transit passengers had been allowed to journey to the nation from the UK, and even then, anybody getting into would wish a detrimental PCR check and must quarantine for 14 days, no matter vaccination standing.
When the principles had been launched on December 18, there had been greater than 65,000 new Covid circumstances confirmed in London alone over the earlier seven days, with 26,418 circumstances reported inside 24 hours – the best quantity for the reason that begin of the pandemic.
France introduced in related restrictions, demanding British travellers have a ‘compelling purpose’ to enter the nation – which didn’t embrace tourism or enterprise.
The UK had reported 90,418 new COVID-19 circumstances on December 18 and 125 deaths inside 28 days of a constructive coronavirus check.
Circumstances had been up 44.4% over the seven days resulting in December 18 in contrast with the earlier week, however deaths, which usually lag modifications in case numbers, had been down by almost 6% over the identical interval.