The longer the government persists with its quarantine plan – the worse it will be for all

The implementation of the new rules are laughable – and it will have damaging consequences, writes Simon Calder

The new regulations will have a massive impact on the aviation industry (PA)

Governments make mistakes. Everyone accepts that. And decent governments own up and try to make good.

By now, the most ardent, build-the-walls Brexiteer can see that Boris Johnson’s government has made a catastrophic error with quarantine. A cheap political stunt, dreamed up by Dominic Cummings in a bid to divert attention from the care homes scandal has mutated into devastatingly damaging legislation.

The implementation is laughable, with every new arrival (including from zero-risk countries) presumed to be carrying Covid-19, but invited to take the Tube from Heathrow or the train from Manchester airport.

You must stay either in a well-ventilated room (Scotland) or make use of “any garden, yard, passage, stair, garage, outhouse, or other appurtenance” (England). And if solitary confinement gets too much for you, the answer is simple: return to the airport and hop on another flight – leaving the country is the only way to shorten the two-week rule.

The effect is catastrophic. Since the government started leaking its plans in early May, no sensible traveller would book a trip in or out of the UK for the rest of the summer. And the rest of the world has looked on either bemused or, in the case of rival travel firms, delighted that Britain is harming its travel industry so deeply.

Aviation in the UK is ferociously competitive. The raw rivalry between easyJet and Ryanair, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, has generated the most successful airline industry in the world, at least from the passenger’s perspective. The result: better value and choice than any other European country.

That, at least, was how the UK went into the coronavirus crisis. It was self-evident that the airlines would emerge weaker and smaller, with tens of thousands of job losses.

Passengers will get some excellent deals as carriers seeks to overcome travel anxiety with seductively low fares for the summer of 2020 – history shows that deep price cuts work a treat to lure Brits on board.

But the longer term will be characterised by higher fares and less choice. And the longer that the government persists with quarantine, the worse it will be. For everyone.

Yours,

Simon Calder

Travel correspondent