Covid-19 updates

COVID-19 Update 94

Thursday 30 July 2020

Dear AOA Member,

It was announced this evening that Luxembourg would be removed from the travel corridor list, after showing a significant change in confirmed COVID-19 cases. People arriving in the UK from Luxembourg from midnight tonight will need to self-isolate for two weeks.

Today the four Chief Medical Officers announced that those who display symptoms of COVID-19 must self-isolate for a minimum of 10 days. The increase from seven days to 10 days is an attempt by Ministers to avoid a resurgence of the virus. The advice is in light of new evidence as people with mild to moderate symptoms may still be infectious days after the onset of the virus. This advice brings the UK in-line with the guidance issued by the World Health Organisation. Also in the news, the Health Secretary did the media round this morning and speaking on BBC Breakfast said he was not against testing people at the border but more work was needed on the timing of the test to make them effective.

This morning AOA attended a webinar on the future of carbon pricing in the UK, hosted by BEIS and DfT. Officials outlined how they envisaged a UK Emissions Trading System (ETS) interacting with the EU ETS, as well as CORSIA. The first phase of the UK ETS would be expected to run from 2021 to 2030, with the potential for it to be directly linked to the EU ETS or standalone. The intention of the UK Government is to make the UK ETS as ambitious as the EU’s, to provide a smooth transition for UK businesses and to protect against carbon leakage. With the COVID-19 pandemic having a substantial effect on international aviation traffic levels, ICAO has decided that the baseline data for CORSIA will only take into account 2019 traffic, not 2020 traffic as well, as was originally intended. While of greater concern to our colleagues in the airlines, AOA will continue to monitor the development of a UK ETS and report anything pertinent to members.

As I mentioned yesterday, I joined other CEOs from across the aviation sector in signing a letter to the Prime Minister, calling for the immediate introduction of targeted regional air corridors and the development of COVID-19 testing. This resulted in media coverage in the FT, Daily Mail and The Times, as well as BBC News.

Other items of Note:

Best wishes,

Karen Dee
Chief Executive