Heathrow welcomed just 536,000 passengers in April, down 92 per cent from the pre-pandemic figure of 6.2 million recorded in the same month of 2019.
In response, the airport called on the government to add more countries to the ‘green’ list of safe travel destinations.
Heathrow chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said: “The green list is very welcome, but they need to expand it massively in the next few weeks to include other low risk markets such as the United States, and remove the need for fully vaccinated passengers to take two expensive PCR tests.”
Officials have outlined plans to revaluate the safe list every three weeks.
Holland-Kaye argued that the government should also help people plan ahead by publishing a list of countries expected to be on the green list for the summer holidays. This could mean that passengers are not faced with high prices for last minute bookings, he said.
At the same time, he urged authorities to increase the resources available at immigration as travel resumes.
“Border Force’s claims that ‘long queues in immigration are inevitable’ smack of complacency – they are completely avoidable if ministers ensure that all desks are staffed at peak times,” the Heathrow chief argued.
