The future of air travel: BA reveals how airports will look ahead of return of holidays

BA chiefs have today revealed the future of post-Covid air travel ahead of the lifting of the UK’s international travel ban. 

Online check-in systems, virtual queuing schemes and even a virus-busting UV robot are among a raft of new measures lined up at Heathrow Airport ahead of the lifting of restrictions on non-essential travel next week.

Britons will be given the green light to legally leave the UK on Monday when the Government finally opens the airport gates for holidays and trips abroad.

Families will be allowed to travel to a handful of ‘green list countries’ without having to self-isolate on their return from Monday.

Countries including Portugal, Iceland and conflict-torn Israel are among the destinations on the list.

However airline chiefs are still anxiously awaiting news on whether Portugal will lift its travel ban for British travellers, with a decision expected ahead of Sunday.

Ahead of the lifting of restrictions in the UK, BA have today announced their new measures for keeping passengers safe from Covid.

Among the measures are:

• A new online check-in system which allows customers to book a check-in slot in advance of their flight;
• A  new virtual queuing system which travellers can use for check-in and for boarding the plane;
• A cheaper £40.41 PCR test and a lateral-flow test which passengers can take while they are abroad;
• The trial of a super accurate 25 second Covid test which could be rolled out to customers later this summer;
• A dedicated family check in area for parents with children aged up to 12; Use of powerful UV robots to help clean high contact areas such as toilets.

One of the biggest changes will see BA push for customers to do more before they get to the airport – though they can still opt for the usual check-in method if they chose.

BA will utilise its app to encourage people to book a check-in slot online before arriving at the airport.

Customers will also have a specific area – called Right To Fly – in their app which will allow them to check the travel restrictions in the country they are visiting.

They can then ‘tick off’ the measures, including submitting evidence of negative Covid tests, uploading their vaccine credentials and giving details for their passenger locator forms in advance.

BA will also team up with Verifly to offer an alternative service, for those wanting to use a different app. 

Passengers will also be encouraged to book Covid tests in advance – with each country having different rules on which tests are needed for entry and when they should be taken.

BA today revealed it had signed a new deal to offer cut price £40.41 PCR tests – which can cost upwards of £100.

PCR tests are currently regarded as the ‘gold standard’ of testing. Results come from a laboratory – meaning they are more expensive and can take days to produce a result.

BA say they are also trialling a new ‘nanotech’ saliva based antigen test which could produce results in up to 25 seconds with between 98 to 100 per cent accuracy.

The tests, provided by Pelican, are currently being trialled on BA cabin crew, but bosses say it could be available to passengers by the summer.

BA chief executive Sean Doyle said today: ‘We think this new ultra-rapid test is a game changer so we are delighted to work with the team at Canary to begin initial trials with our flight and cabin crew, before exploring what role it could play as a customer testing option.’  

The airline revealed they have also signed a deal with Qured, a company which allow customers to take a lateral flow test abroad, book a video appointment so a doctor can watch the test take place, and then submit the results online.

Bosses say such schemes will be useful for those travelling to countries without large testing infrastructure. 

When arriving at the airport, customers – who will have to wear facemasks inside the terminal – will have access to a huge supply of Covid killing hand-sanitiser and hand wipes. 

BA chiefs say they will have 10,000 anti-bacterial wipes and 3,000 litres of hand sanitiser fluid, in 400 dispensers, available to customers at its Heathrow check-in areas at any one time.

There will also cleaning carried out by special virus-busting UV robots, which burn bacteria to death.

The robots, commonly used to clean operating theatres, will be used in areas such as the toilets of Heathrow. 

The machines omit harmful UV rays which destroy the DNA of viruses and bacteria.

But, because of the dangers, the robots can only be used to clean empty rooms and are operated remotely by staff.

Along with bacteria killing robots, BA have also set up a virtual queuing system which they say will ‘stop bottlenecks’ of passengers.

Passengers will scan a QR-code into the Qmatic system and wait for their number to be called before going to the check-in area. The trial will also be used at the check-in gate.

Other initiatives include a family check-in gate, specifically aimed at parents travelling with children aged under 12.

However, despite the raft of new measures, BA say they do not expect customers to arrive earlier than usual at the airport.

In fact, BA chiefs hope the new measures will actually cut time at the terminals – thus reducing the amount of time passengers spend waiting around.

Tom Stevens, BA Director of Customer Experience told MailOnline: ‘We are doing everything we can to make it as familiar as possible.

‘We are not asking people to come to the airport earlier and we are not expecting congestion as you check in.

‘We are doing a huge amount of work pre-airport.’

Meanwhile, flight crew and pilots are being prepared ahead of the return to international travel on Monday.

With much of the airline’s fleet grounded during the pandemic, many BA staff, including pilots, have been furloughed.

But bosses say pilots have been rotated to keep them flying throughout the pandemic to keep them practised.  

BA’s Director of Flight Operations, Captain Al Bridger, told MailOnline that staff were ‘looking forward’ to flying again.

He said: ‘I think it is natural for people to be apprehensive, but when they see all the measures that have been in place to make it Covid secure and the other measures that have been put I place I’m sure people will feel relaxed.

‘I think all of the staff are really looking forward to getting back to flying again.’

BA has been forced to make thousands of redundancies as a result of the enormous damage inflicted on the global travel industry during the coronavirus crisis.

Thousands of staff have also been furloughed due to the low number of passengers taking flights during the non-essential international travel ban – which is due to end on Monday.

Earlier this week the airline penned an open letter alongside the bosses of Delta, Virgin, American Airlines and JetBlue which begged US President Joe Biden and British premier Boris Johnson to reopen transatlantic travel urgently to save economies and reunited families separated for more than a year.

It comes after Downing Street declined to add the US to its ‘green list’ of safe destinations that British holidaymakers will be allowed to visit from Monday, May 17 without having to quarantine. However, arrivals must test negative for coronavirus before and after getting back to the UK. 

The Department for Transport has said it will review its policy on June 28.

They said they need adequate time to plan routes and to staff them after an announcement is made, and that June 11-13 – when the two leaders meet at the G7 in Cornwall, England – would be the perfect time to announce it.

‘The return of Transatlantic flying would not only have a significantly positive impact on our respective economies but will also reunite those who have been separated from their loved ones for over a year.’ 

Both the US and the UK have vaccinated roughly a third of their populations and travel to and from each country from multiple others is allowed, but free travel between them has been banned since March 2020. Currently, and as has been the case since March last year, a non-US citizen cannot fly directly from the UK into America.

British rules have fluctuated but currently, anyone from the US can fly to the UK so long as they quarantine for 10 days upon arrival and take multiple Covid-19 tests.

A new report on Tuesday from Airlines for America revealed that in the first quarter of 2021 alone, the major US airlines lost $7billion between them. That is on top of the $35billion they collectively lost in 2020.

The report predicted that it will take until 2023 for normal levels of air travel to resume. Between February 2020 and February 2021, the number of US airline employees dropped by 66,000. Globally, it dropped by 46,000.    

BA caused panic for thousands of Britons rushing out to Portugal from May 17 after sending an official warning that their holiday could be illegal and they may be fined £5,000 each if they go.

The airline’s message to customers booked on to planes to Faro next week came just six days before the country is put on Britain’s ‘green list’ from Monday.

In a message sent to passengers booked on flights from Heathrow to Faro, seen by The Independent , BA warns: ‘You can only travel internationally from England for legally permitted reasons. This does not include holidays.’

And adding to the confusion, BA has said that passengers must fill out a Declaration to Travel form, even though they are due to be axed from May 16. Failure to fill one in is punishable by a £5,000 fine and even arrest.

The message added: You may be required to show the form at the port of departure. It is an offence to enter a port of departure or embarkation point without a properly completed form if you are travelling internationally. Some job-related exemptions apply.

‘You may be issued with a fixed penalty notice and directed to return home if you do not have a valid reason for travel.’ The confusion over guidance is bad news for BA, whose flights to the Algarve are one of its few ‘Green List’ destinations.

Last week the Foreign Office updated its official travel advice to say that they no longer advise against all but essential travel to Portugal. But the Portuguese Government is yet to update its entry requirements to match, just six days until Britons are due to start arriving on holiday. 

Yesterday MailOnline revealed that thousands of Britons will use a loophole to fly into ‘green list’ Portugal after May 17 before travelling over land to their holiday homes in Spain, France and Italy.

The opening up of flights next week has seen a rush of people planning to jet to Faro, Porto or Lisbon with nothing to stop them renting a car so they can then drive into Europe, experts say.

The land border between Portugal and Spain is open with the French border with EU countries expected to follow suit from as early as May 19, meaning British travellers will likely avoid having their passports checked. 

And Britons with second homes in Europe can travel to them if they are preparing them for sale or need to carry out urgent repairs – but with most short haul flights to France and Spain axed, people are planning alternative ways to get there. 

Online flights search engine Skyscanner has said that bookings to Portugal are already up 660 per cent per day based on a week ago – and people have taken to social media to admit they are planning to use the loophole to get to holiday homes.

Travel guru Paul Charles, founder of the PC Agency consultancy, told MailOnline: ‘I think you will see a big rush on flights to Portugal because there are hundreds of thousands of Britons with second homes in Spain, France and Spain.

‘Many won’t have visited for more than a year – and will be desperate to get away from the UK. Others may want to see family abroad. They could drive across and then sit tight until the end of June when those countries are expected to go green’.

Mr Charles has also predicted that a version of the NHS’ digital vaccine passport will be up and running by May 17, while UK and Portugal Government advice warning against travel to and from Portugal will be changed ahead of the great holiday restart in a week’s time.  

‘Holidaymakers travelling to and from Portugal will be viewed as a way to test how the travel system will work in Covid times before opening up to the rest of Europe, probably around June 21’, he said. 

Mr Charles added that while the borders between Portugal and its European neighbours would be open, travellers would have to be aware of the local rules in their final destination, but France, Spain and Italy are all easing their lockdown in the coming weeks.  

The border between Spain and Portugal is open – while proof of a negative test is required to pass into France from Spain. 

Anyone caught travelling abroad from the UK for a non-essential reason to a non-green list country could be issued with a fixed penalty fine of £5,000. 

But if you have a second home, you are legally authorised to travel there from the UK if you are going to organise selling it, buying it, renting it or letting it out.  

The same rules apply in Europe, where Brits are expected to argue why it is ‘vital’ to travel to those homes in a pandemic. 

A spokesman for the airline said: ‘At British Airways we are looking forward to welcoming our customers back on board. We are in the process of adjusting our emails to customers, to reflect the change in the government’s travel advice to certain destinations.’

People have taken to social media to admit they are planning to use the Portugal loophole. 

One said: ‘Do you realise that I can travel to Portugal, a green country, rent a car then drive to Spain or France (amber countries) then come back home to the UK and completely avoid any testing or isolation requirements?

Another tweeted: ‘Fly to Gibraltar and enter Spain? It can be recorded as you’re crossing an international border. Fly to Portugal and drive to Spain? Who’s to know’.

One user urged to Government to put Spain on ‘green’ to ensure visitors don’t bring back Covid variants. He wrote: ‘So you can fly to Portugal, drive then into Spain and fly back to Uk from Portugal and be treated as a green country. So why not put Spain on then Green list and ensure the necessary testing is in place’.

Hugh Aitken, vice president of flights at online booking service Skyscanner, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘On Friday we saw over 119 per cent increase in bookings day on day just as travellers started to respond to the green light to start international travel.

‘Portugal itself saw a well over a 660 per cent increase in bookings out of UK day on day. Very positive and a good start. The key thing is we’re certainly seeing the demand out there’. 

Zina Bencheikh, managing director in Europe for Intrepid Travel, which operates small group tours around the world, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We know there is a pent-up demand, we know that travellers want to travel, it’s just about when they will be able to do so. 

‘I do think that travellers need to book their holidays in advance because there are so many flexible possibilities, they can change last-minute, they can request for a refund as well dependent on which company they book their trip with, and I think that flexibility will give peace of mind for not worrying about prices increasing in the near future.’

It came as Britons learned they could head to Italy without having to quarantine on arrival as soon as mid-May – but will still be forced to self-isolate for 10 days on their return if they don’t stay for six weeks or so.

Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said he is planning on lifting quarantine restrictions for travellers from Britain, Israel and European countries in a bid to revive its flagging tourism industry.

Quarantine requirement may be scrapped for those arriving from the United States from June, Di Maio said.

He met with Health Minister Roberto Speranza to discuss the easing of restrictions for countries where vaccination levels are high.

‘We are working to lift the ‘mini-quarantine’ for people coming from European countries, the UK and Israel, if they have a negative swab, proof of vaccination or have recovered from COVID within the last 6 months. Same thing for the U.S.’, he wrote in a post on Facebook.

People entering Italy from other European countries and Israel currently face five days of quarantine and mandatory testing both before arrival and at the end of their isolation period. 

The current rules on EU arrivals expire on May 15. 

For travellers arriving from the United States the required quarantine period is 10 days.

However, for UK holidaymakers, Italy remains on the ‘amber’ list of countries meaning people are being advised not to travel there.

Travellers who go against the guidance and head to an amber destination must self-isolate at home for 10 days and take two post-arrival tests. 

Other popular holiday destinations are on the amber list including France, Greece and Spain, whereas Portugal, Israel and Gibraltar are on the green list.

Di Maio said Italy would also be working to increase the number of ‘Covid-free’ flights to and from the United States, and to end the quarantine requirement from June.

Italy began a cautious reopening on April 26 after months of coronavirus restrictions, with bars and restaurants permitted to serve customers outdoors.

The country is desperate for the return of tourists as it seeks to recover from a major recession sparked by the pandemic, but health experts still urge caution.

Italy recorded another 10,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday and 224 deaths, taking the total to more than 122,000 – the highest rate in the EU, while around 27 per cent of the population have received their first vaccination dose.

‘I, like I think most Italians, want to reopen, I want people to go back out to work, to have fun, to be together,’ Prime Minister Mario Draghi told reporters Saturday after an EU summit in Portugal.

‘But… we have to do it safely, that is, calculating the risk that we run.’

He highlighted the importance of getting the EU’s mooted ‘Green Pass’ up and running, which would allow travel within the bloc to those with immunity, vaccinations or a negative coronavirus test. Italy had been the world’s fifth-most visited destination, but visitor numbers collapsed by more than 60 percent from 2019 to 2020.

Google searches for ‘holidays to Portugal’ soared more than 3,000 per cent in the hour after the Government named it as one of the countries that will be on its ‘green’ safe travel list from May 17.  

On Friday, the Department for Transport revealed at a Downing Street briefing that travellers will be able to visit 12 destinations – including Portugal – from May 17 without having to self-isolate on return to England.

Speaking soon after the briefing, the boss of a travel firm analysing Google data said that searches for ‘holidays to Portugal’ had ‘skyrocketed’ by 3,233 per cent compared to ten minutes before Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ announcement. 

Searches for Israel and Gibraltar – which are also on the green list – were up by 1,329 per cent and 488 per cent, the Sun reported. 

However, travel bosses demanded that more countries be put on the quarantine-free list as they criticised the ‘overly cautious’ ministers for only approving 12 destinations so far.     

Of the nations and territories on the list, only the above three, as well as Iceland, are allowing Britons in without the need to quarantine.    

People returning to England from a green destination from May 17 will not be required to self-isolate and are only required to take one post-arrival coronavirus test.

The green list also features several remote British Overseas Territories and destinations where visits are heavily restricted, such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei and the Faroe Islands.