Boris Johnson announced that Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing for fully vaccinated people arriving in the country is set to be scrapped in what is a boost for the airline industry.
Campaigning from airlines and falling Omicron cases are behind the easing of the travel testing rules, with Plan B restrictions also set to be scrapped altogether in England from Thursday.
"Although we have to be cautious, we are now moving through the Omicron wave, and you can see the figures are starting to get better,” said Johnson.
Since the outbreak of the Omicron variant, many of the low-cost carriers (LCC), such as easyJet, saw the amount of passengers on flights fall in December following some months of recovering numbers.
Ryanair was forced to slash its profit guidance last month after it forecasted a fall in traffic in both December and January due to COVID-19.
Shares in LCCs fell again, though this was more likely to due to the sell everything mentality on a terrible day for the market overall.
Wizz Air shares are down 4%, with easyJet down nearly 5% in afternoon trading.
Current passenger numbers at Heathrow are still less than half of pre-pandemic levels, with December seeing just over 3mln passengers, though today’s news left the boss of easyJet optimistic that a busy summer is ahead.
"We commend the government for removing all testing. easyJet plans to return to near 2019 levels of flying this summer and so we can't wait to welcome our customers back onboard." Johan Lundgren, easyJet chief executive said to Sky News.
The confirmed date for the rule change has yet to be announced, though the Travel Secretary is set to confirm the change later.