NEWS: British Airways & Virgin trial fast track entry to UK for fully vaccinated

The border to the UK has been a shambles during much of 2021. The last two times I have been through at T5 it has been fine but now queues are beginning to reach ridiculous lengths again. There is absolutely no reason for this. The technology exist to check every single person in a matter of a couple of seconds. I am currently in Palma. To enter Spain you must fill in the form equivalent to the PLF and then all that happens is you show the QR code after immigration and providing it checks out, you are through in a couple of seconds. 

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Heathrow have joined forces to prove it’s possible to quickly and easily verify those arriving into the UK who are fully vaccinated – an identification process already in place for outbound travel to several countries. Earlier this week, Germany became the latest country to confirm it would accept fully vaccinated UK travellers without the need to quarantine. The new UK proving trial, enabling inbound travellers to present their fully vaccinated status, will support the Government to move forward with its plans to remove quarantine for double jabbed passengers entering the UK from ‘amber list’ countries.

The initiative will see fully vaccinated volunteers travelling on selected flights from Athens, Los Angeles, Montego Bay and New York to London Heathrow showing proof of their vaccine status. The trial aims to reassure Government that airlines and airports can check vaccine status upstream and away from the Border, ensuring no further pressure in UK immigration halls. Those taking part in the trial will be able to use a dedicated arrivals lane at the border in T5 and T2/3.

Hopefully, this gets proved very quickly and is rolled out to all destinations. 

Internationally recognised vaccination credentials will be accepted in the proving trial including the NHS app, CDC card, US state-level digital certification and EU Digital Covid Credential. British Airways will also support customers’ vaccine verification through the VeriFLY app and Virgin Atlantic customers can verify their vaccine certificate through a new digital uploader tool. As the proof-of-concept develops, the options for customers to show vaccine status will rapidly be expanded including IATA Travel Pass.

Routes in trial

Customers on the following routes will be able to participate in the proving trial:

British Airways

New York (JFK) to London Heathrow (LHR)

BA112 Daily, arrives 06:30

BA182 Daily, arrives 09:40

Athens (ATH) to London Heathrow (LHR)

BA623 Daily, arrives 09:55

BA629 1 x weekly, arrives 16:20

BA633 1 x weekly, arrives 21:50

BA637 4 x weekly, arrives 19:05 or 18:55 or 18:25

BA639 5 x weekly, arrives 15:25 or 15:30

BA641 5 x weekly, arrives 17:25 or 17:35

Virgin Atlantic

VS24 Los Angeles (LAX) to London Heathrow (LHR), operating daily

VS166 Montego Bay (MBJ) to London Heathrow (LHR), operating twice a week

Vaccination eligibility

Fully vaccinated is classed as 14 days after the customer’s final jab. The certificate should show the customer’s name, date of birth, dates of vaccination, vaccination type and located where the vaccine were administered.

Vaccination types accepted are WHO approved – Oxford/Astra Zeneca, Johnson & Johnson (Janssen), Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Sinopharm.

The UK has led the world with its successful vaccine programme, which the Government promised would lead to the end of Covid restrictions. To date, 86% of UK adults have had a first dose of a Covid vaccine, with 64% fully vaccinated. 

Despite this incredible achievement the UK is failing to reap the economic and social rewards, falling behind countries like France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta, all of which accept fully vaccinated travellers, including US residents, without the need for quarantine. The US also allows its fully vaccinated residents to avoid self-isolation. The Government’s own transparency data also continues to show very low positivity in test results from ‘green’ and ‘amber’ country arrivals, with just 0.4% testing positive, and none of them had a variant of concern.

Sean Doyle, British Airways CEO and Chairman said:
“We need to act quickly to protect jobs, re-build the UK economy and reunite loved ones. We are already helping our customers show proof of their vaccination status when travelling to a number of other countries outside the UK which require it, and we’re confident we can make this happen for entry to Britain too, very quickly. We look forward to providing the data that proves it’s simple for fully vaccinated status to be verified and to the Government meeting its commitment to get the country moving again.”

Shai Weiss, CEO, Virgin Atlantic said:
“To reap the benefits of the UK’s world-leading vaccine roll out, the UK Government must act now to remove self-isolation for fully vaccinated passengers arriving from ‘amber’ countries, and no later than the domestic reopening on 19th July. Our proof-of-concept trial on selected US and Caribbean routes demonstrates our readiness as an industry to rapidly operationalise the new policy, and work with Government and authorities to ensure it is smoothly implemented at pace, supporting the reopening of the Transatlantic corridor, without which £23m is lost each day from the UK economy.

Representatives from the travel industry have been clear about the consequences for the UK’s economy and jobs of not opening the corridor quickly enough, with hundreds taking part in a day of action on June 23. Today, Heathrow released new research from CEBR, reinforcing the importance of aviation to the Government’s ambitions for Global Britain, which could help industry deliver a £204bn trade boost to benefit every corner of the UK. Heathrow has warned that this cannot be realised unless the UK’s aviation industry is supported by Government policies to resume flying as soon as possible.

On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson restated that this important step to exempt fully vaccinated travellers from self-isolation would happen ‘later this summer’, with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps set to provide more detail this week. It’s hoped the proof-of-concept will encourage the Government to introduce exemptions for fully vaccinated travellers no later than 19 July, allowing the UK to catch-up with the EU and US, which have already introduced similar schemes.

John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow said:
“This pilot will allow us to show that pre-departure and arrival checks of vaccination status can be carried out safely, so that fully vaccinated passengers can avoid quarantine from the 19th July. In addition to this, the UK Government must make progress on reopening travel between the US after a designated taskforce was established to look at this back at the G7. Heathrow is the main port for trade in goods and services with the US, the only country with whom the UK has a trade surplus. New research today demonstrates just how critical it is to the UK economy to get the passenger planes that carry those exports off the ground. This is a vital step towards delivering the Government’s ambitions for Global Britain and they now need to act fast.”