By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Airlines were in focus on Monday morning after new simplified travel rules came into force which saw the UK's complicated traffic light system replaced by a simpler red list.
From now on, fully vaccinated passengers returning from countries that are not on the government’s red list will not have to take a test before travelling to the UK, however, travellers will still need to take a PCR test two days after arrival.
The new rules should make it easier and cheaper for passengers travelling abroad, according to Airlines UK CEO Tim Alderslade.
“This is a positive step which moves us much closer to the reopening of UK aviation and provides greater reassurance to passengers desperate to travel,” Alderslade said on September 17th when the changes were announced. “That said, the insistence on keeping Day 2 testing still leaves us as an outlier across Europe, given most EU countries long ago removed this as a requirement for vaccinated passengers, and it is unclear why the UK has chosen to remain a special case.”
Ryanair and Wizz Air traffic figures
Both Ryanair (LON:RYA) and Wizz Air (LON:WIZZ) updated shareholders on their traffic figures for September on Monday morning.
Ryanair said it carried 10.6 million passengers in September, up from 5.2 million in the same month last year. The budget airline said the load factor was 81%, up from 71%.
Wizz Air announced it carried 3.0 million passengers last month, up from 1.6 million in September 2020. The load factor increased 13.8 percentage points to 78.4% from 64.6%.
IAG reconsiders Gatwick plans?
Another airline in the news was IAG's (LON:ICAG) British Airways. The carrier is reportedly close to reversing its plans to stop short-haul flights from Gatwick Airport.
The Telegraph reported that the Balpa trade union is set to take a new deal to pilots after talks were reopened last week in hope that they will support the changes.
British Airways had previously scrapped the plans for a new low-cost airline subsidiary at Gatwick Airport after pilots rejected the plans that would have seen them take a pay cut.