UK quarantine, minister comments hurting any travel recovery -IAG's Walsh

British government quarantine plans and a minister's comments that international holidays were not likely this year are hampering any travel recovery, said Willie Walsh the boss of British Airways parent company IAG.

Airlines have been crushed by the coronavirus pandemic and are making thousands of job cuts to try to survive. They had been hoping for a recovery to begin in July, but Walsh said the British government was damaging the chances of this.

"The Prime Minister's decision to quarantine people arriving in the UK, by air, and the Health Secretary's comments that it was unlikely that 'big, lavish international holidays' were going to be possible this summer, have seriously set back recovery plans for our industry," Walsh said in a letter to parliament's transport committee on Thursday.