Tourism UK should have done better on Covid-19: IATA director general By Reuters June 8, 2022 Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), also defended airlines' handling of a rebound in traffic that is driving long lines at some airports. Source: Creative Commons A top airline industry official on Tuesday said the UK should have responded “a hell of a lot better” to Covid-19 and argued aviation should have been more forceful in challenging government-mandated border closures during the pandemic. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), also defended airlines’ handling of a rebound in traffic that is driving long lines at some airports, while blasting the Covid-19 response of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who survived a confidence vote on Monday. “You look at the UK, Boris Johnson he highlights one of the reasons why he should continue to be prime minister as being the way he handled the pandemic. What a joke,” Walsh told the Paris Air Forum. “They should have done a hell of a lot better.”
