LONDON (Reuters) – Digital health checks will be vital to a recovery in international travel from the COVID-19 pandemic, UK Heathrow Airport said Wednesday after a drop in passenger numbers resulted in a £ 2 billion loss Billion US dollars) last year.
The UK government said on Monday that overseas travel could resume in mid-May when the vaccination campaign begins, which would spur a spike in vacation bookings.
A digital health passport or app is also being explored to ease restrictions while weighing the benefits against potential risks to civil liberties.
However, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said digital technology and international agreements would be vital to revitalizing a travel industry on its knees.
“It’s absolutely critical and that’s one of the most important things the government needs to work on,” he said when asked about a digital health app.
Currently, the paper review of COVID-19 test results and passenger search forms takes 20 minutes per traveler at Heathrow. This makes a trip almost impossible if the number of passengers increases from the current low levels.
Britain’s largest airport said it was “very likely” that people could leave for the summer vacation, but expects passenger numbers to take some time to recover.
The airport west of London is forecasting 25 million passengers for the second half of the year, which corresponds to an occupancy rate of around 50%.
Owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, the Qatar Investment Authority, China Investment Corp and others, Heathrow lost its title as Europe’s busiest airport to Paris last year after its flight schedules shrank more than its competitors.
Passenger numbers fell 73% to 22 million people last year, with half of passengers traveling in January and February before the pandemic halted global travel in March.
Heathrow said it has 3.9 billion pounds of liquidity, which gives it enough resources to continue low-traffic despite losing 2 billion before taxes for 2020 to 2023.
The airport urged the government to provide business tax breaks for large airports previously only available to smaller airports and to extend the vacation job support program to help fund it before the recovery begins.
($ 1 = 0.7044 pounds)
Reporting by Sarah Young. Adaptation by James Davey and Mark Potter
