Let vaccinated travellers go amber
SIGNS travel rules for doublejabbed holidaymakers could be relaxed are looking “great”, ministers said yesterday.
Experts are studying evidence to see if restrictions on amber list visits can be eased this summer for those who are fully vaccinated.
It comes as travel chiefs step up pressure to ease restrictions that are crippling the industry.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said evidence for doublejabbed people travelling safely was “still developing”, but heading in the right direction.
He said: “It looks great, it looks really encouraging, we’re trying to be as flexible as we can.”
There is intense pressure from holidaymakers and the travel industry to ease restrictions swiftly, but Mr Buckland said ministers needed to strike a balance between safety and travel freedom. He said: “Inevitably, in a situation as unprecedented and demanding as this, there are going to have to be significant trade-offs.
“It’s clear that holidays as normal – or travel as normal – was never going to be the case, bearing in mind the rise of particular [Covid] variants, most notably the Delta variant.
“Throughout this crisis we’ve tried to strike the right balance between the natural need in some cases for international travel, but also the imperative of making sure we do everything we can at home to contain and prevent inadvertent spread of new variants of concern.
“This is a hugely difficult situation. I think of omelettes and eggs, I’m afraid, but we are doing our very best to maintain that balance with regular reviews to allow the maximum flexibility.”
Public Health England is studying evidence from other countries and its Covid response chief Dr Susan Hopkins said there may be “alternatives to isolation” for double-jabbed holidaymakers.
She said: “We’ve talked a lot to countries like Israel who are ahead of us in the vaccination campaign.
We will need to be alert and will need to consider how we can measure the response of these vaccines to new variants.
“But we are moving steps forward and I think that in a time in the future, I’m not sure when, I can imagine a situation where we will have alternatives to isolation for people who have two doses of the vaccine.” The travel green list will be reviewed later this week, but the Government is continuing to act cautiously as it races to vaccinate all adults.
Amber list travellers have to isolate at home and red list destinations require quarantine in a hotel.
On Wednesday, around 800 airline staff will join travel industry workers in a Westminster protest over the effect the rules are having on the sector.
Their Travel Day of Action will include demonstrations at Heathrow, Bristol, Edinburgh and Manchester airports.
Manchester Airports Group chief of staff Tim Hawkins said: “We are really concerned we are facing a summer with the prospect of so little traffic.
“Over a million jobs rely on the aviation industry in the UK. We would really hope ministers will listen to these concerns.” He
added: “There is a huge disparity of the UK’s approach and other countries, where travel is being allowed under much less stringent conditions.”
Trade body Abta wants the Government to reintroduce international journeys safely by implementing the Global Travel Taskforce’s plan for a traffic light system.
Abta says it can be done by expanding the green list “in line with the evidence and making restrictions more proportionate”, while keeping a strong red list to guard against virus variants.
It also wants ministers to bring forward a package of tailored financial support, which would include extending furlough.
World trade body the International Air Transport Association has warned 860,000 jobs in UK aviation travel and tourism have been lost, furloughed or at risk.
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) said European air traffic data for this month showed flights to and from the UK had fallen by three-quarters compared with 2019. Gatwick and Manchester airports were the worst affected in Europe, followed closely by Heathrow and Stansted.
Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton blamed the UK’s “ludicrously cautious” travel curbs.