Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a financial support package for the aviation sector in the context of further covid-19 travel restrictions.

The Government recognises the challenging times facing the international travel sectors due to COVID-19. Additional temporary testing measures introduced in response to the Omicron variant remain in place to help prevent additional cases of Omicron from entering the UK, while supporting domestic measures to tackle the spread of the variant in the UK. The Government recognises the impact these temporary health measures have on the travel and aviation industry, and they will be reviewed again in the first week of January.

Since the start of the pandemic, we estimate that the air transport sector (airlines, airport and related services) will have benefitted from around £8bn of government support.