Airlines Say New UK Travel Rules Cause Vacation Uncertainty

Airlines and holiday providers are expressing frustration with the U.K.’s plans to ease travel restrictions, saying uncertainty about how and when the new rules are going to be implemented make it difficult for people to book summer vacations.

By Associated Press
June 25, 2021, at 6:36 a.m.

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Airlines Say New UK Travel Rules Cause Vacation Uncertainty

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FILE – during this Friday, Aug. 21, 2021 file photo, a passenger inspects the departures timetable at the international airport in Split, Croatia. Airlines and holiday providers on Friday, June 25, 2021 expressed frustration with the U.K.’s plans to ease travel restrictions, saying uncertainty about how and when the new rules are going to be implemented make it difficult for people to book summer vacations. (AP Photo/Miroslav Lelas, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press

Airlines and holiday providers on Friday expressed frustration with the U.K.’s plans to ease travel restrictions, saying uncertainty about how and when the new rules are going to be implemented make it difficult for people to book summer vacations.

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The government on Thursday expanded its “green list” of safe travel destinations, allowing people to go to without having to self-isolate for 10 days after returning to Britain. However, about one among the new additions were also placed on a watchlist, meaning the quarantine requirement could also be re-imposed at short notice.

Transportation authorities also said they shall relax travel restrictions by allowing fully vaccinated travelers to go to higher-risk destinations, including the U.S. and most of the ecu Union, without having to self-isolate. They expect to implement this alteration “later within the summer.”

“The U.K. has already fallen behind the EU’s reopening, and a continued overly cautious approach will further impact economic recovery and therefore the 500,000 U.K. jobs that are at stake,” said Shai Weiss, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, which offers mainly long-haul flights to destinations like ny , l. a. and Barbados.

Airlines and hospitality companies have pressured the govt to ease travel restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19 following the U.K.’s successful vaccination program. The pandemic has devastated Britain’s travel industry, with the amount of individuals flying through London’s Heathrow Airport, the nation’s busiest, plunging 73% last year.

The government has created a traffic signal system to manage the reopening of aviation . Destinations with low levels of COVID-19 and high levels of vaccination are placed on the “green list,” which allows pleasure trips and doesn’t require self-isolation on return to Britain. Only essential travel is permitted to “amber list” countries, but travelers must self-isolate for 10 days once they return home. the govt has banned most visit destinations on the “red list,” and anyone coming back from during a ll|one amongst|one in every of”> one among these countries faces a 10-day quarantine in a government-approved hotel at their own expense.

The lists are updated every three weeks.

The Department for Transport said Thursday night that the expansion of the green list and plans to ease restrictions on fully vaccinated travelers were the results of the successful vaccination program. Almost 61% of U.K. adults are fully vaccinated, and 83% have received a minimum of one dose.

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said caution was still required.

“It won’t be quite love it was in 2019 and therefore the old days, but we are occupation a positive direction,” Shapps told Sky News.

Public health authorities are concerned about the likelihood that travelers may spread potentially more dangerous variants of COVID-19 to the U.K. from countries with low vaccination rates. The delta variant, first identified in India, has already become the dominant version of the virus in Britain.

Regardless of U.K. policy, officials within the European Union are considering imposing a quarantine on British travelers due to their concerns about the delta variant which is 40% to 60% more transmissible than previous versions of COVID-19. In minutes released from government meetings earlier this month, experts said the delta variant also could also be linked to a better risk of hospitalization, although “numbers are still small” and there’s no evidence the variant is more deadly.

Diana Holland, assistant general secretary of the Unite union, said the govt must change its approach to supply greater certainty for the travel industry and consumers.

“The traffic signal system is just not fit purpose,” she said. “It is impossible for a multibillion-pound industry to form plans for the longer term when the rug are often pulled from under them every three weeks.”

The government on Thursday added quite a dozen countries and territories to its green list, including the favored holiday destinations of Malta, Madeira and therefore the Balearic Islands . All of the destinations except Malta were placed the watch list.

The changes, which become at 4 a.m. June 30, will expand the green list to 27 countries and territories.

The newly added countries are: Malta, Madeira, the Balearic Islands , Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands , Cayman Islands , Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Antigua, Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados and Grenada.

Britain also added six countries to the red list, including the Dominican Republic , Haiti and Uganda. That brings the amount of nations covered to 56.