British Airways and Heathrow Airport are urging the UK government to rapidly expand the number of countries that UK travellers can visit without needing to quarantine on their return. Speaking during a 17 May press conference to mark the official restart of international travel from the UK, British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle and Heathrow Airport counterpart John Holland-Kaye argued that with rapidly expanding vaccination rates and falling Covid-19 cases, much of Europe should be added to the 'green list' in time for the peak summer season. "Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, France and Germany are making tremendous progress, and we expect them to be added to green list soon," says Holland-Kaye. BA and Heathrow are also asking the government to specify which countries it expects to be on the green list for the peak summer season, in order to allow passengers to plan ahead. Holland-Kaye expresses his surprise that other destinations were omitted from the list, citing the case of Barbados – which has low incidence of the disease and "you could say embodies low risk". He notes that as many travel companies reply on their summer trading to see them through the leaner winter months, "many companies will not make it to next year" unless rules are eased. As a result, up to half a million UK travel jobs remain at risk. Doyle echoes Holland-Kaye's call for an expansion of the green list to include the USA, which has also run a successful vaccination campaign. He highlights the pent-up demand to travel from passengers, noting a 500-700% jump in customer searches for Portugal compared with the previous weekend, following the announcement that it was on the UK's green list. Flight searches to popular destinations such as Spain and Greece have also increased in recent days, "so we do hope for a meaningful return to flying this summer", he adds. Holland-Kaye and Doyle repeated the industry's calls for the UK government to allow passengers who have been vaccinated to travel to low-risk countries without testing requirements. They are also calling on the authorities to allow travellers to use lateral-flow tests to travel and to only require them to use more-expensive PCR tests if they receive a positive result. Value-added tax on Covid-19 tests should also be removed, they argue, to reduce the financial burden on passengers

Ryanair Group chief executive Michael O'Leary has warned that Boeing "need to get their act together" regarding the 737 Max delivery schedule, as the low-cost carrier is still to hear when its first aircraft will arrive. Speaking during a 17 May results call, O'Leary said Ryanair had expected to receive six Max jets in April and eight in May, "and six weeks after the first aircraft was due we still haven't seen any". Ryanair is now unsure whether it will receive its first Max in time for the summer, a cause of concern for the carrier as it seeks to get pilots, cabin crews and passengers used to the aircraft before a wider deployment next year. O'Leary says he recently wrote to Boeing seeking clarity over the delivery schedule but has yet to receive a response. "With Boeing the relationship is somewhat fraught at the moment," he says, complaining that, despite being the airframer's largest customer in Europe, "we can't even get them to reply to a letter over a period of 10 days". He goes on to label Boeing's actions as "disappointing and unacceptable", adding: "I don't think the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] likes being fobbed off either." The delays are complicating Ryanair's discussions over an order for the 737 Max-10. "They need to get their act together," adds O'Leary. Ryanair was keen to take delivery of Max jets in April and May to facilitate ramping up of its services in the late spring and summer. This tallies with the carrier's increasingly buoyant expectations for a strong snapback in demand during the peak summer flying season in Europe. O'Leary cites very strong bookings into June, July and August, with ticket sales surging over the past six weeks. Ryanair Group now expects to carry around 1.6 million passengers in May, rising to 4 million in June or "maybe a little bit more than that". The monthly figure should then rise to 7-9 million in July, which is around two-thirds of pre-Covid volume. Beyond that, passenger numbers should reach 90% of 2019 levels in the second half of the year, the airline believes. "People are booking and they are booking in ever increasing numbers," says O'Leary. "We are looking at a very strong recovery". The carrier sold around 1.5 million seats last week, against a pre-Covid level of around 2.5 million for this time of the year. Although this represents a huge increase from around half a million bookings six weeks ago, O'Leary concedes that "It is still a long way short of where we would like to be this year". Ryanair Group plans to add back around 80% of capacity for the peak summer season, and then pare back if the demand fails to materialise. This strategy means that there will be a "yield lag", as the carrier seeks to encourage passengers back into the sky with lower fares in the early summer. The hope is that this will bring in higher booking numbers in the mid- and late peak season, once customers are confident about returning to the skies. "We are overstimulating with capacity," observes O'Leary. "I'm very happy to accept a yield penalty in the short term." The carrier adds that it has now turned cash-positive as passengers numbers have picked up. It believes for its full year to end-March 2022 it will broadly break even, after posting a record loss of €815 million ($990 million) for the year to end-March 2021. Revenue collapsed to just €1.64 billion, from €8.49 billion in the previous year, in line with an 81% fall in passenger numbers to 27.5 million.

Portugal will allow entry to tourists from the UK without quarantine from 17 May. The Portuguese ministry of foreign affairs announced 14 May that anyone arriving from midnight on 17 May must have a negative PCR test within the previous 72h as a condition of entry, reports the BBC and others. Previous concerns over the viability of travel to Portugal centred on the Lisbon government's extending of a "state of calamity" until the end of the month, as well as an EU-wide tourism ban. The latest announcement from the Portuguese government appears to have removed this uncertainty. Following the UK government's publication of its 'green list' safe travel destinations earlier this month, several airlines ramped up planned capacity to Portugal. Ryanair disclosed that it was adding 175,000 seats to the country from the UK as of 17 May, connecting tourists with Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve. EasyJet intends to make an additional 105,000 tickets available to Portugal and Gibraltar this summer, including a new route from Newcastle to Faro, as part of plans to operate 1.65 million seats to green-list countries. "EasyJet and EasyJet Holidays have seen UK bookings surge within hours of the UK government revealing which destinations will initially be on the ‘green list’ for travel from the UK this summer," the Luton-based low-cost carrier said earlier this month. Chief executive Johan Ludgren stated that although EasyJet was "disappointed that so few countries were put onto the green list", it has increased its services to those countries that it can operate to "and we are ready and able to ramp up." UK airline Jet2 and its tour operator Jet2holidays said on 10 May that bookings to Portuguese destinations had jumped 600% compared with the previous day, before the government announced the amended travel rules. The airlines reported a 1,300% increase in summer bookings to those destinations compared with the previous week. Leisure airline TUI has also indicated plans to ramp up operations to Portugal, having previously warned that a lack of clarity over entry requirements to the country meant it may have to cancel flights scheduled for 17-30 May. With the latest announcement, those flights now look clear to take place. Credit Suisse describes the news as "a positive development" for travel to Portugal, and "helpful for UK airline cash inflows". Although a host of other countries have been placed on the UK's green list that will enable travellers to return without having to quarantine – notably Australia, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand and Singapore – most would require long-haul flights from the UK, a factor that is likely to constrain bookings.