Here’s a thought!

When we first were confronted with Covid-19 and the extreme measures to counteract the virus, no one in the travel industry could have predicted that 12 months on we would still have the extreme measures in place.

These extreme measures are the travel ban here in the UK, the closure of borders abroad in some countries and the differing testing and quarantining regimes all over the world.

Thinking that vaccinating the UK population is the solution is not correct since the vaccine only protects the recipient from becoming severely ill from the virus, it does not stop them from contracting the virus or spreading the virus, and here is the problem. Vaccinated people can still spread the virus – so until the majority of the planet is vaccinated we may continue to have travel restrictions.

It is not right that infected people are allowed to infect others, so we need to work around the problem.

Maybe the solution lies in testing but the current PCR test takes too long and is too costly, we need a rapid test that is as accurate as a PCR test but at a fraction of the cost and where results can be instant or fairly quick.

If anyone wishing to travel takes such a test at the airport prior to getting on a flight the results will show that it either detected the virus or not. If we can get governments around the world to allow vaccinated travellers who test negative to land in their country, then we might have the beginnings of getting travel back on its feet.

The cost of the test should be included in the airfare in the form of a tax or some such mechanism.

Together with a vaccine and the test, that should be enough to manage the risks of spreading the virus globally and helpfully get us travelling again!