Ryanair sues UK government over travel restrictions
By Caoimhe Toman
Date: Thursday 17 Jun 2021
(Sharecast News) - Ryanair has teamed up with Manchester Airports Group to bring legal action against the UK government over its "traffic light" system for Covid-19 restrictions.
The move, which has been done as an attempt to force the government to relax restrictions to save the summer season for airlines, is expected to receive support from other airlines.
The pair filed legal papers at England's High Court on Thursday to seek clarity over the system, reported Reuters.
Peak summer season is just weeks away and the already struggling aviation industry is concerned about losing another summer due to Covid-19.
A government spokesperson said it cannot comment on legal proceedings.
"We recognise this is a challenging period for the sector, as we seek to balance the timely reopening of international travel while safeguarding public health and protecting the vaccine roll-out," the government said in a statement.
Britain is still discouraging travelers to go to popular summer destinations such as Spain, France, Greece and the United States which are "amber" under the traffic light system and require quarantining for 10 days upon return to the UK.
Only a handful of places are classified as green with none lying inside the European Union after Portugal was removed at short notice earlier in June.
The court papers will argue the British government should clearly explain how it makes decisions on categorising countries.
"The current opaque way that decisions are being made is undermining consumer confidence to book summer holidays and makes it impossible for airports, airlines and other travel companies to plan for the recovery of international travel," the companies said in a statement to Reuters.
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