Airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic want the British government to implement pre and post-flight coronavirus testing, which they said could scrap the need for quarantine altogether, Sky News reports. Shai Weiss, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said: "The only way to fully reopen vital trading and travel links, support the UK's economic recovery and protect more than 500,000 jobs supported by aviation, is to move to a robust pre-departure testing regime to safely replace quarantine as soon as possible." Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has gone further, saying that travelers will need to prove they have been vaccinated against coronavirus to board flights. Joyce said the move would be a "necessity" when vaccines are available and that he thought it would be "a common thing" among airlines in future. But for now, in a sector where hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk, there is hope that testing five days after arrival in the UK may be the first step to recovery.

Source: The Standard November 24, 2020 11:59 UTC