Covid: Birmingham Airport 'losing millions' due to travel restrictions

Birmingham Airport is running at 5% pre-Covid passenger levels, according to boss Nick Barton

Birmingham Airport is losing an "eye-watering" amount of money under current Covid travel restrictions, according to its boss.

Nearly half of the staff employed by the airport have lost their jobs since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Chief executive officer Nick Barton said it was running at 5% of pre-Covid passenger levels.

The UK's travel industry is seeking to increase pressure on the government to ease the rules on foreign travel.

The airport received an £18.5m emergency loan in February from Birmingham City Council to help avoid the threat of insolvency.

It has also used the government's furlough scheme and the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme which helps cover fixed costs, such as business rates.

But Mr Barton said it was still losing "millions" of pounds as the costs of running the airport when nearly closed "are very close to the costs you incur when you are running it when it is quite full".

Passenger numbers picked up in May as lockdown rules eased and travellers could head to Portugal from Birmingham, when it was on the green list.

But weeks later, the government moved Portugal off the green list, leading to criticism from holidaymakers and the travel industry.

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Mr Barton said the airport needed more predictability about how the travel lists were managed and wanted more countries labelled "green".

"At the moment there is only one country on that list that we can get to from this airport, which is Gibraltar," he said.

The travel industry has called for an expansion of the green list of countries

The industry body Abta - representing travel agents and tour operators - said hundreds of travel agents, pilots and cabin crew had taken part in a day of action to demand the expansion of the green list.

They also want the removal of testing and quarantine requirements for fully-vaccinated travellers.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said ministers are working on plans for quarantine-free travel from amber-list countries for people who are fully vaccinated.