Edinburgh Airport boss warns UK quarantine is 'significant backwards step'

The chief executive of Edinburgh International Airport has warned the UK Government's plan for a 14-day quarantine for incoming travellers would have a "very serious" impact on the industry.

Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar said airlines may choose not to fly under new quarantine rules.

Speaking on Good Morning Scotland on Monday morning, Gordon Dewar said that the ‘significant backward step’ would have an impact on people's desire to travel and begged the question on whether airlines would continue to fly because of the lack of demand.

At present there are about 30,000 jobs connected to air travel in Scotland.

"It's unhelpful because it's very uncertain and it's deeply unhelpful because it appears we're going into stricter rules rather than looking forward to getting back to something approaching normality," Mr Dewar said.

Last month it was reported that flights at Edinburgh airport were down 97 per cent last week compared to before the lockdown.

The total number of take-offs and landings at the airport shrank from 581 to 16 a week – an average of little more than two a day.

Around 80 per cent of 750 airport staff have been furloughed due to the pandemic.

On Sunday First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that from tomorrow Scots will be allowed to exercise more than once a day.

But she added that no other changes would be made to lockdown restrictions.

She stressed that while people were being encouraged to exercise safely, close to their homes and keeping a two-metre distance from non-family members, they were not to ‘sunbathe or have picnics or barbecues’.

The First Minister also confirmed she had asked the UK Government not to deploy its new, controversial "stay alert" message north of the border.