Shapps’ green light to book foreign holidays

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PEOPLE can “start to think” about booking overseas summer holidays, according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

The Cabinet minister said it is the first time in “many months” he was not advising against booking foreign trips.

His comments came just five days after Downing Street published a document which urged people “not to book summer holidays abroad until the picture is clearer”.

And earlier this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon played down the chances of foreign holidays, saying banning non-essential overseas trips is a “price we have to pay” for more domestic freedom for now.

She pointed to increased Covid-19 cases in European countries like France, which have prompted fresh lockdowns on the mainland.

But yesterday Mr Shapps announced a “framework” for the resumption of overseas leisure travel, which included requiring all arrivals to take predeparture and post-arrival coronavirus tests.

Post-arrival tests must be the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) type which cost about £120, he said.

This led to a furious backlash from the travel industry, which wants travellers returning from low-risk countries to be allowed to take lateral flow tests, which are cheaper and quicker.

Asked if people could start to book foreign holidays now, Mr Shapps told Sky News: “I’m not telling people that they shouldn’t book summer holidays now, it’s the first time that I’ve been able to say that for many months.”

He said he was looking to “drive down the costs” of tests required for international travel to resume.

“Costs are definitely a concern, it’s one of the factors this year, and we have to accept we’re still going through a global pandemic,” he said.

“And so we do have to be cautious and I’m afraid that does involve having to have some tests and the like.

“But, I am undertaking today to drive down the costs of those tests and looking at some innovative things we could do.”

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the requirement for PCR tests was “a blow to all travellers” and risked “making flying only for the wealthy”.

He added: “As the rest of British society and the economy opens up, it makes no sense to treat travel, particularly to lowrisk countries, differently.”

Mark Tanzer, boss of travel trade organisation Abta, said permitting the use of lateral flow tests would “make international travel more accessible and affordable whilst still providing an effective mitigation against reimportation of the virus”.

Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2.com, reacted to the update by extending the suspension of its flights and holidays until June 23 because of the “continued uncertainty that the framework provides”.