The London High Court in the UK has turned down the legal challenge filed by Manchester Airports Group (MAG) and other airline companies against the UK Government’s traffic lights system for travellers entering Britain.
In June, MAG in the UK reportedly partnered with Irish airline company Ryanair to launch a legal action against the government over the travel traffic light system.
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The complaint was filed against the Department for Transport and the Department of Health and Social Care.
This legal challenge sought more transparency on how the countries are being classified by the government.
The litigation, led by MAG, was also supported by British Airways owner IAG, TUI, Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic in addition to Ryanair.
In their appeal to the court, airports and airline companies have raised concerns over the government’s traffic light system, which classifies countries based on their Covid-19 risk.
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By GlobalDataThey argued that the decisions were not based on data.
Although the court partially accepted the argument against the government, the final decision was given in favour of the government.
The judges said that the government had not acted unlawfully and will not have to make more disclosures regarding how it reaches decisions over its travel rules.
The UK Government has welcomed the court’s decision.
A government spokesman said: “Our traffic light system continues to cautiously manage the risk of new variants as we balance the timely reopening of international travel while safeguarding public health and protecting the vaccine roll-out.”
