Walsh says quarantine would make IAG review flight plans

The boss of British Airways' parent said he would reconsider plans to restart flying in July if the UK government went ahead with proposed quarantine measures for passengers arriving in Britain from other countries.

The government said at the weekend that air passengers arriving at airports from outside the UK or Ireland would have to quarantine for two weeks as part of plans to avoid a resurgence of Covid-19. It later said people arriving from France would be exempt under a reciprocal deal.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, BA's owner, told MPs there was "nothing positive" in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's televised statement on Sunday night and that he could not understand the French exemption.

"The announcements yesterday of a 14-day period for coming into the UK, it’s definitely going to make it worse." Walsh told parliament's transport committee. "We had been planning to resume on a pretty significant basis of flying in July. I think we would have to review that based on what the prime minister said yesterday.”

Walsh also said his plan to cut up to 12,000 jobs at BA was "solely" the result of the biggest downturn airlines had seen and that he was not using the crisis as a pretext to make cuts and changes to working conditions. IAG has announced no job cuts so far at its Spanish airlines.

Walsh's comments, reported by Reuters and others, reflect airline industry objections to the proposed quarantine period. Citi analysts said IAG and easyJet would both probably be forced to raise capital if the UK introduced the two-week measure.