British Airways is considering legal action over the “irrational and disproportionate” quarantine rules due to be implemented next week to try to control the spread of coronavirus, in an escalating row between the flag carrier and the government.
BA’s owning group, IAG, is reviewing possible action with lawyers over a move that it said was implemented without consulting the travel industry. With more flights are due to resume after virtually all passenger planes were grounded at the end of March, airlines and travel firms have said quarantine measures on incoming travellers would destroy any early recovery.
The chief executive of IAG, Willie Walsh, said he had written to MPs on Thursday to explain the damage the policy would cause. BA snubbed a meeting on Thursday night between ministers and other aviation leaders.
Walsh told Sky News there had been no prior consultation and said: “I wrote to MPs last night to say this initiative has in effect torpedoed our opportunity to get flying in July.
“We think it is irrational, we think it is disproportionate and we are giving consideration to a legal challenge to this legislation.”
Walsh said he expected other airlines to follow suit. Ryanair, which has often matched IAG’s stance on policies such as state aid, also did not attend Thursday night’s Zoom meeting with the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the aviation minister, Kelly Tolhurst, which was joined by all other leading airlines and airports.
Somer former Conservative ministers expressed sympathy with BA and criticised the government’s stance.
David Davis, the former Brexit secretary and MP for Haltemprice and Howden, told the Guardian: “It is entirely understandable that BA would consider taking legal action. The government position does appear to be irrational.
“As far as I can see there is no risk in accepting people from other countries which have lower infection rates than ours, in fact there is a greater risk if people travel to London from my constituency.”
Another former minister said BA would be sticking up for UK business if the firm took legal action. “I hope BA does sue because it could go some way to persuading the government that we do not want to be governed via focus groups. This has the fingerprints of Dominic Cummings all over it,” the former minister said.
BA had previously said it would resume flights in July but when quarantine rules were first announced said it would review those plans.
Virgin Atlantic on Thursday announced its flights would resume from 20 July – a date that would allow another three-week extension of the quarantine rules, which are due to be introduced on 8 June and reviewed on 29 June.
From Monday, passengers arriving in Britain will need to stay at home for 14 days – in effect stopping most inbound holidays, and deterring people from making bookings for future travel.
The rift between BA and the government has deepened since the decision of the BA boss, Alex Cruz, to decline the meeting with Patel, which prompted Whitehall sources to brand the company as “not serious about getting Britain working again”. The meeting came a day after Tolhurst and others condemned BA in parliament for a lack of “social responsibility”, over its plans to rewrite the working conditions of its 42,000 staff during the crisis, and make up to 12,000 workers redundant.
Walsh said on Friday that no decisions had yet been made on the redundancies.
