¡®Better late than never¡¯ probably best encapsulates the response to last week¡¯s launch by the UK government of a global travel taskforce. Charged with finding ways in which to cut quarantine procedures and stimulate travel, the group is due to report back no later than early November, yet already the government is stalling.

Addressing this week¡¯s Travel Convention from ABTA, Grant Shapps described the government¡¯s preference of a ¡®test and release¡¯ scheme but added that November is ¡°not a long time to get to the outcomes and the practicalities of putting something like this programme in place.¡±

Shapps said the taskforce is working on a regime to reduce the self-isolation period after returning to the UK from high-risk destinations which would mean ¡°a single test for international arrivals around a week after arrival¡±. A negative result would allow the traveller to be released early from the 14-day quarantine period.

Tests would be provided by the public sector and paid for by the passenger, said Shapps. He said, ¡°A big priority is to make sure any testing regime does not impact on NHS capacity.¡±

He continued: ¡°In addition to that new domestic test and release model, we¡¯re also working on schemes with partners and countries to establish whether self-isolation could take place before departure. The main point being that we will consider all options that increase tourism and business travel but to do so safely and thereby help the sector recover from this pandemic.¡±

While there have been widespread calls for immediate testing upon arrival, Shapps said ¡°accepting a ¡®day zero¡¯ on arrival test could allow significant numbers of people to wrongly believe they are not bringing Covid back with them and we believe that has happened in other countries.¡±

Meanwhile, the travel industry is now ¡°coalescing around the idea of pre-departure testing¡± and, for those in the business travel sector in particular, the prospect of opening up a London-New York travel corridor, says Drew Crawley, chief commercial officer at American Express Global Business Travel (GBT).

¡°The first thing is to replace quarantine with testing. Everyone is aligned with that because if you don¡¯t remove quarantine through careful risk-mitigated testing you won¡¯t get people travelling again,¡± says Crawley.

The TMC has proposed to government two pre-trip tests, one 48 hours before departure, one on departure and then, if necessary, another on arrival. GBT has also proposed the idea of a quarantine exemption for business travellers who have booked trips through TMCs.?

¡°It adds another degree of risk mitigation in that corporations will have done their own duty of care assessment and then, when we take over and manage the booking, we know where that traveller is for 80 to 90 per cent of the time they¡¯re away,¡± says Crawley.?

The first steps, or any trial, says Crawley, should be applied on travel between London and New York, one of the world¡¯s biggest international business routes ¨C a key route for corporates but also highly profitable for airlines and TMCs.

¡°From a commerce perspective, it¡¯s so important to the UK economy. To have that artery opened up is critical,¡± says Crawley. ¡°Once we have confidence in the process, add another five routes a month¡­ scale it up.¡±

Crawley says that Heathrow Airport as well as Collinson Group and Swissport who are working with Heathrow on a test-on-arrival pilot, are ready to being testing subject to the government¡¯s green light.?

He continues: ¡°We just need the starting gun, but we appreciate it¡¯s difficult when Covid cases are rising.

¡°The US side is very positive about the whole thing. The UK side... we have the travel taskforce now as a device to hopefully review and push this thing along, but they [the US] are probably a month ahead of us.¡±

Across the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that US officials are keen to create an air bridge between London and New York by the end of November. Passengers would be tested for Covid-19 both before their flight and on arrival at their destination.

Currently, only US residents, nationals and those in certain exempt positions can travel between the nations and they must quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the UK.

Karen Hutchings, global travel, meetings and events leader at EY, believes the travel taskforce is ¡°late coming¡± and must now ¡°quickly accelerate¡±. Hutchings was speaking on our most recent Week in Review podcast which look at air supply chain viability.?

¡°The reason there¡¯s so much focus on London-New York is because it¡¯s number one for so many organisations and it¡¯s lucrative for all the airlines operating on it,¡± says Hutchings. ¡°It¡¯s the most logical place to start. If it [a testing regime] works on that route it will work elsewhere.¡±

Dave Bishop, chief commercial officer at Gray Dawes, says London-New York is the TMC¡¯s most profitable and biggest city pair internationally. ¡°We await it coming back eagerly. The sooner it happens, the better,¡± he says.

The big question is indeed when. Asked if he is confident a testing regime could be in place by the end of the year, Crawley said: ¡°We¡¯re just going to keep going until it happens.¡±

More disconcertingly, Baroness Harding, head of the UK¡¯s Test and Trace programme, said earlier this week that airport testing of travellers is not ¡°a silver bullet to fighting the virus¡± and would give no reassurance that any such scheme would be in place by the end of the year.

Harding was responding to a question by Focus Travel Partnership chief executive Abby Penston on the timing of implementation of border testing during a webinar organised by the UK¡¯s Federation of Small Businesses.

Harding indicated that testing is only likely to reduce the amount of time spent in self-isolation after travel, rather than eliminating quarantine completely.

¡°A negative test at a point in time only proves that you are not infectious at that point of time. If you have been travelling from a very high-risk environment then I would expect that the clinicians will still advise that some kind of quarantine is necessary,¡± she said.

In the meantime, airlines and airports are taking it upon themselves to get the ball rolling. In the UK, Virgin Atlantic, which has halved its workforce since the onset of the pandemic, is trialling pre-departure testing for its crews on several routes. Results are available in 30 minutes and have so far led to two asymptomatic cases being identified.

The airline¡¯s chief executive Shai Weiss has called for urgent action to implement a passenger testing regime that will help ease travel restrictions. ¡°Without the removal of quarantine we will not be able to take off as an economy. Our team is now reviewing all the opportunities out there for rapid point-of-care testing pre-departure to allow the UK economy to take off,¡± he said at this week¡¯s Travel Convention.

¡°This is going to be passenger-paid¡­ and the cost will come down rapidly. We¡¯re cooperating with Heathrow and Collinson ¨C they¡¯re ready and waiting. We¡¯re looking at the best standards that will give customers confidence to fly and governments to know that planes and travel and tourism do not bring infections with them.¡±

Weiss continued: ¡°We¡¯re working across the [travel] infrastructure to form a coalition that¡¯s willing to explore what¡¯s necessary for this industry to take off. While we have our differences [with competitors], we¡¯re united in our desire to see the economic recovery of this great nation move very rapidly.¡±

Both Heathrow Airport and Collinson support the roll-out of CommonPass, an initiative from The World Economic Forum and The Commons Project Foundation, a Swiss-based non-profit organisation.

Trials of the ¡®digital health pass¡¯ begin this month between London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore with Cathay Pacific and United Airlines, enabling travellers to start sharing certified Covid-19 test status at borders. Government authorities will observe the trials.

"Individual national responses will not be sufficient to address this global crisis,¡± says Christoph Wolff, head of mobility at the World Economic Forum. "Bans, bubbles and quarantines may provide short-term protection, but developed and developing nations alike need a long-term, flexible, and risk-based approach like CommonPass."

It is now more than eight months since countries across Europe began implementing lockdowns and travel restrictions and the prospect of business travel recovery still hangs on freeing up international movement and testing regimes that reduce or eliminate quarantine requirements. Even well-managed travel businesses with solid finances will run out of cash if there is no revenue to be had.

¡°Introducing a testing pilot in weeks not months is absolutely crucial for restarting business travel. Without testing, British business cannot travel and trade, and the consequences for the UK economy will be seismic,¡± says Clive Wratten, CEO of the Business Travel Association.

¡°The survival of the business travel sector hinges on the government¡¯s willingness to act. If business travel cannot restart, the current 50 per cent level of job losses will be dwarfed by further layoffs. Many thousands more will lose their jobs, and a vital support structure for the UK economy will be lost forever.¡±

For the UK, the situation is even more pressing as the nation nears the end of its transition period after leaving the European Union in January this year.

¡°We leave the EU formally at the end of December and we need to be trading with the rest of the world,¡± says GBT¡¯s Crawley. ¡°Frankly you cannot trade and create new relationships through the medium of Zoom or Teams. We must be able to fly in the best risk-mitigated way as possible and as soon as possible.¡±