Air passengers 'should be tested to cut quarantine to 8 days'

Everyone arriving in Scotland from abroad must be tested for Covid-19 to cut quarantine from 14 to eight days and avert the “imminent decimation” of the travel industry, agents have demanded.

Travel agents claimed that testing passengers arriving from abroad could reduce quarantine requirements. Picture: SNS.

It follows similar calls from the country’s major airports which they said have fallen on deaf ears.

However, the Scottish Government said it was “considering carefully” airport testing.

The Scottish Passenger Agents Association (SPAA), which represents travel agents, said the move would help “rescue the travel industry which faces being wiped out”.

The SPAA said four of Scotland's six testing centres were at airports but arriving passengers were not being checked. Picture: Andrew Milligan.

It claimed testing would reduce the need for those arriving from countries such as Spain and France to quarantine for two weeks.

The body said Croatia could be the next country to be removed from the “safe” list.

President Joanne Dooey said: "We're calling for testing at airports because of the importance of travel to the Scottish economy.

"Outbound travellers are worth £1.7 billion to Scotland and outbound travel sustains more than 26,000 jobs.

"We understand there is a cost associated with testing.

"However, the cost to the UK and Scottish governments of the failure of the travel sector in Scotland with the associated job losses would utterly dwarf the investment in airport testing.

‘Paradoxical’

"It seems paradoxical that the majority of drive-through Covid-19 testing centres in Scotland (four out of six) are based at airports – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Prestwick – but there is no passenger testing at these locations.

"Other countries, such as Germany, have managed to introduce well-managed testing programmes at airports and are reporting minimal wait times with, for example, no one in Hamburg waiting more than 30 minutes to be tested.

"Even Jersey - which is part of the British Isles - has a testing operation for all arrivals at the airport.

"We cannot understand why testing does not appear to be being considered in Scotland and seems to be a low priority.

"A testing regime could potentially reduce the requirement for a 14-day quarantine to a more manageable to eight days.

“Without that, the travel sector in Scotland faces imminent decimation."

‘Ill-thought out’ quarantine scheme

A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “We’ve put these points to the Scottish Government many times without any meaningful response.

"It is vital we find some way to move on from the ill-thought out and badly implemented quarantine scheme that is crippling our industry and the industries that aviation supports.

“We hope the SPAA’s timely intervention will help us get action from the Government and help us in stopping further job losses.”

A spokesman for AGS Airports, which owns Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports, said: "The introduction of blanket quarantine measures for France and Holland caused great concern for passengers and dealt another hugely damaging blow for the aviation industry.

“We cannot operate in such an unpredictable environment.

“That is why we have continually called for the introduction of robust testing measures that will deliver passenger and airline confidence while providing the necessary government assurance.

“Without a more targeted, science-based approach such as testing, the aviation industry will continue to be at serious risk of collapse and tens of thousands of jobs will be lost.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Testing at airports is something we are considering carefully.

"We are working on a four nations basis to examine whether additional measures at airports could further reduce the risk of imported Covid-19 cases from abroad.

"However, we know testing at airports would not be fully effective on its own.

"Covid-19 has an incubation period of up to 14 days and the quarantining of travellers from high risk countries is the safest way to reduce the risk of travellers arriving in Scotland inadvertently transmitting the disease to others.

“We continue to engage closely with the airline industry and we understand their concerns.

"Our priority remains to safeguard public health and suppress transmission of the virus.”

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