There has already been state support for airlines. Even Hungarian Wizz received £300m and they didn’t even need the money and then there is now this

https://centreforaviation.com/analys...ate-aid-548577

Everyone is demanding state aid as though it is free money but just wait until the day of reckoning and that government debt needs to be paid off in the form of tax rises.. Let’s see if those that demand more now will be at the head of the queue to complain. How about a new tax on aviation fuel to help reduce U.K Plc debts and the doubling of APD? I guess no one likes that idea so how about raising income tax or corporation tax? A raid on pension schemes? Don’t like that either?

guy_incognito

That is a rather gloomy assessment. I agree that the Summer 2021 season is almost dead before it has even started, but I fully expected that in the autumn, which is why I have been saying that anyone who books a trip for S21 and hands over money is in the first place whistling in the wind, and second putting their hard earned cash at risk.

However announce the death of the UK aviation industry is somewhat exaggerating the situation. Even, just supposing there was a total collapse with the likes of Jet2, EasyJet, Ryanair, Loganair; the whole shooting match going bust, which won't happen anyway, the consequence would be the rising from the ashes of new businesses started up by executives and entrepreneurs in the industry, so that when the time is right, probably 2022, the industry would emerge looking very much different from how it does today, or to be more accurate, in 2019.

The same would likely happen with the package holiday industry, with many more smaller players filling the gaps left by the behemoths that now dominate the sector. That may be no bad thing for consumer choice, and also for employment in the longer term.

Helipixman:-

How can you just look at raw numbers; yes Scotland has vaccinated as many people per capita as England, but to use pure numbers is disingenuous. Just as an example, it is much more difficult for Scotland, given it's size and population to ensure that there are vaccination points within 10 miles of everyone in the population. Much easier for England.

guy_incognito

I'd usually think this is ridiculous, but it's obvious international travel like what we are used to is gone for good.

Interested in people's opinions here. If this time last year Covid was still very new, we had no vaccine etc and we knew very little about it, but there was still a significant holiday season (albeit with restrictions), why do people think there will be no holiday season this year considering the advancement in the knowledge and vaccine we have now?

Because the U.K. government are taking a different (stricter) approach this time...

Plus there is no discussion of when these restrictions will end. The constant popping up of new variants is going to make it impossible for international travel to ever happen again on the scale we are used to.

It was being quoted at about 40% but the current anecdata :Eseems to show that, for example, once some of the residents in the likes of the Ehpads ( basically old people's home) are vaccinated and don't fall over many of their peer group suddenly have a change of heart and it becomes a case of "I'll have what she's having"....:ooh:

I'm hearing similar is happening in other groups outside the Ehpads so I don't think the reality is that 50% of the French population will refuse to be vaccinated..

But yes the roll out is *** slow, we went through the 1000 000 vaccinated figure a day or two back.

Theres plenty of discussion of when restrictions will end. Its all over the papers today.

All this talk of the end of international travel is just rubbish. It will take time but it will come back, and probably in a more sustainable way as older airframes are retired from fleets, and newer more fuel efficient aircraft take over.

Viruses mutate all the time, The issue we have is the current high infection rate means a new mutation could come in and spread rapidly while our vaccine scheme is still being rolled out. Once the infection rate comes down, which it would in the summer months even without a vaccine, the vaccines can be tweaked to combat any new mutation. We will get to the the point of annual covid vaccines, and an annual death toll which society will tolerate. It will end up being treated much like flu.

What has happened with government this time is a new bod has taken over in number 10 and said to can't keep over promising and under delivering. It needs to be the other way round. Hence the change in mood.

I think restrictions of some sort will carry on past easter into the early summer. But as the vaccines are spread to more and more adults those restrictions will be eased. Then this coming autumn a new set of vaccines to combat the most prevalent strains of the virus will be rolled out to the most vulnerable. And on we go until Covid is not even thought about anymore. Much like the flu season we get every winter.

The view in government is that the tighter the travel restrictions the better the chances of keeping new variants out of the country. Last Spring the government was under pressure to relax the rules so the great British public could have their foreign holidays in time for the school holidays and we all saw what happened in the Autumn.

This year that pressure won’t be there. In fact the pressure could be to maintain closed borders which will make life easier for the government.

I don't think people understand what is happening here. None of these restrictions are temporary. Closure of pubs, restaurants and non-essential retail, the right to socialise, the effective closure of the border: these are all permanent restrictions that the government has no intention of ever relaxing. They have said as much, stating that one of their criteria for relaxing restrictions is "no new variants". There will be extremely limited passenger travel, most likely for diplomats, dignitaries and "high value individuals". For ordinary people, the UK border is closed for good.

The factual version is: Even British Wizz Air UK received £300m LOAN and they use the money to keep a rural airport called Luton alive.

Have I got this right, from having the first vaccine jab to having the second one, it takes about thirteen weeks to have a 95% immune system to the virus. Government aim is to have all the jabs done by September, the way I see it travel is going to be very limited this year.

TBSC

British Wizz did not get a penny as it went to the Wizz holding company as they trade on the stock exchange. The Wizz group benefited by paying off loans that were replaced with cheap U.K. money.

The emphasis here has been on oversees holidays - which in the grand scheme of things isn't top priority.
Despite Zoom & Teams there will still be the need for business travel even at a reduced rate.
There are a whole host of of other reasons why people travel, work, family and medical
My other half is in Hong Kong (work) I have not seen them for 12 months now. I cannot go there as a Brit, for them to come here would make it very difficult to get back into HKG and would take 2 weeks stop at an acceptable transit point followed by 3 weeks quarantine- so not practical.
I won't be the only one in this situation, people have families spread all over the world, they can't be denied access forever.
After a year there still is no standardisation of travel policy, quarantine rules, health checks, testing, They need to establish an international standard a la security check, a standard that is acceptable to the majority of countries and only then can controlled travel be opened up. It may not be suitable or sustainable for a weekend stag do in Magaluf but it would be acceptable for bringing families together & essential business travel.

The British government does not care about business travel (Boris "F*** business" Johnson), and it cares even less about enabling families to be together. All indications are that extreme isolationist policies are hugely popular with the public. You're living in cloud cuckoo land if you think that there'll be a harmonised set of international regs to allow travel I'm afraid.

And which country has the most extreme isolationist policies and is the most popular with its citizens? New Zealand. And what does New Zealand have in common with the U.K? Both Islands so the borders are easier to control if the will is there.

I see France is introducing new travel restrictions to EU countries that won’t apply to road and rail travel making the restrictions pointless with its open borders.

It’s what happened to security screening after 9/11 to enable travel to restart.
where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Your second sentence is the problem.

Mr A Tis

For the most part I think you're right, and with "the orange one" out of the way international consensus may become easier; however two (for the UK) particularly high profile flies in the ointment loom large, namely Australia and New Zealand, both of whom appear to be adopting "zero risk" policies where a single case is one too many, when in reality this virus is never going to be eliminated, it's going to be managed.

Whatever part of the UK we live in our respective Governments probably will not allow foreign travel in Summer 2021 sad news for many and the Tourism industry - so can anyone on here think of or know the way out so that we can travel. We can all speculate and give our opinions but will any of it actually happen. Keep safe and follow the rules...