The National Airlines Council of Canada is calling on Ottawa to follow the United Kingdom’s lead and help bring in a restart plan for Canada’s airline sector, specifically allowing travel to and from a select list of countries without quarantine for passengers.

Mike McNaney, president and CEO of the industry group, notes that Britain will begin such measures on May 17 with an initial list of low-risk countries that is expected to expand over time as the COVI9-19 public health situation improves.

And he adds that it is time for the federal government to work with the industry in Canada to develop a similar plan.

“In the midst of the pandemic in February, the British government recognized the critical need to plan for the eventual safe reopening of international travel and began working with its aviation sector to develop a restart process,” McNaney said. “On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have lost their jobs in the aviation and travel sector, and the scores of communities that have lost service, it is critical that the federal government now follow the UK example and work immediately with industry to develop a restart plan.”

McNaney said the Canadian aviation sector has called on the federal government for months to develop a safe restart strategy that outlines the rules that must be met to begin addressing border and travel restrictions.

He said the strategy should use a science-based approach that sets out how Canada will deal with vaccinated and non-vaccinated passengers, how quarantine and testing measures will be adjusted, and how it will ensure appropriate electronic capture of health data to facilitate international travel.

Last month before the new federal budget was tabled, McNaney said the council, which represents represents large national and international passenger air carriers including Air Canada, Air Transat, Jazz Aviation LP and WestJet, hoped the budget would include a safe aviation restart strategy that included testing and contract tracing but would avoid mandatory vaccine passports.

Britain “first tentative step” toward resuming international travel, was announced last week with the news that UK citizens will be able to travel to countries including Portugal, Iceland and Israel later this month without having to quarantine upon their return.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the country’s current blanket ban on overseas vacations would be replaced on May 17 by a traffic-light system classifying countries as low, medium, or high risk.

The “green list” of 12 low-risk territories also includes Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands, and the Falkland Islands — but not major vacation destinations for Britons such as France, Italy, Spain and Greece, which are on the “amber” list. Britons travelling to those countries, and many others including the United States and Canada, will have to continue to self-isolate for 10 days when they return.

And all but essential travel from Britain remains barred to “red list” countries with severe outbreaks, including India and South Africa, Nepal, the Maldives and Turkey.