“We’re essentially closed for business internationally” NI airport boss
New international travel rules mean passengers need a negative Covid test before arrival.
International travellers will need a negative Covid-19 test before coming to Northern Ireland from today (Thursday).
Passengers will have to have a test done in the departing country 72 hours before flying.
People are also required to quarantine for 10 days on arrival after all travel corridors were scrapped on Monday.
Graham Keddie, Managing Director of Belfast International told Downtown and Cool FM that the rules mean the airport is “essentially closed for business internationally”.
He said: “It’s very unlikely that anyone will travel internationally, and it means it’s now very very difficult because you’ve got to quarantine from everywhere.
“No travel corridors have been allowed from today in Northern Ireland or from England slightly earlier.
“That’s a real problem for us in terms of international flights.
“We were down to three international destinations anyways.
“I suspect our airlines will cancel or are in the process of cancelling those flights at least until the middle of February.”
Mr Keddie said January is normally the quietest month for the airport, in terms of passenger numbers.
He said pre-Covid there would have been around 360,000 travellers coming through their terminals, but this year he anticipates numbers will drop drastically.
He said: “It will come back, but what I have said previously is they were putting the nail in the coffin, then they screwed it down and now they’re just piling the rocks on top to make sure we’re well and truly not going to come back for a wee while.
“Because of the almost lack of international travel that’s currently going on it’s not as damaging as it was, it just creates damage to confidence, it means things are very very quiet.
“To put things into context normally in January our quietest month of the year, we do about 360,000 passengers.
“This year we’ll be lucky if we do 30.”
“It shows you the damage that’s been caused to what is the largest employer in South Antrim.
“I think we’re the second largest site employer in Northern Ireland normally there’s close to 5,000 people working on the site.
“We now believe that number is below 4,000 with around over 800 job losses currently.”
Mr Keddie is now calling on the Westminster Government to “step-up” and provide a bespoke package for the aviation sector.
He said: “This is now having drastic in terms of confidence has gone in terms of travel, international travel is shut that Westminster needs to stand up to the plate and actually starts needing to support the aviation industry.
“Westminster has backed away from support the Aviation industry with bespoke packages.
“I mean travel is crucial to us and I mean the wider aviation industry not just airports.
“You know airlines, travel agents, ground handlers, we’re all in a situation where we’re all struggling.”