Ryanair boss slams UK’s 14-day quarantine rule, says it will cost millions of tourism jobs

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has slammed the decision of the UK government to make travellers arriving in the UK, undergo a 14-day quarantine. This will cost millions of tourism jobs, he warned.

He said his airline is experiencing a “collapse of inward bookings” for flights this summer, because people are being told to self-isolate for 14 days under government measures that came into effect on Monday.

The British government is looking to guard against a second wave of coronavirus.

All passengers, bar a handful of exemptions, now have to fill out an online locator form giving their contact and travel details, as well as the address of where they will isolate.

O’Leary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “We’re seeing thousands of British families booking their holidays in Portugal, in Spain and Italy, but there’s almost a collapse of inward bookings bringing those Italians, bringing those Europeans here to the UK, on which Britain’s tourism industry depends, particularly in the peak months of July and August. What’s irrational about it is all of those countries have a much lower Covid rate than the UK.”

“Millions of jobs are going to be lost in British tourism because British hotels, British guest houses, British visitor attractions – the London Eye, Madame Tussauds – will be empty, because the hundreds of thousands of Italians and Spanish and French people you get coming to Britain every July and August simply won’t travel.”

Ryanair has joined with easyJet and British Airways in starting legal proceedings in relation to the policy. They sent a pre-action letter to the government, the first step in an application for judicial review, urging it to reverse the “defective” measures.