Heathrow calls for government to add more countries to "overly cautious" green list

The UK’s largest airport has said that the government’s green list is “overly cautious” as it reports a 92.1 per cent fall in passenger numbers.

Heathrow, in London, saw passenger numbers fall by 6.2 million in April, compared to the same period in 2019, with cargo volumes down by 12 per cent.

It said that it expects numbers to climb when the travel ban is lifted on 17 May, but that more countries should be added to the list, and that the government should provide estimates of which countries will be safe to travel to ahead of time to allow customers to plan journeys.

The airport added that the government’s attitude towards immigration queues at the border “smack of complacency”, with queues reaching “unacceptable” wait times ahead of the implementation of automated border checks.

John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow, said: “The government’s 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.

“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.”