Stick to UK plan and save holidays, SNP told

THE Scottish Government must accept the new traffic light system for foreign breaks or risk holidaymakers flying from English airports instead, travel agents have warned.

There has been a boom in holiday sales in England after UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a list of quarantine-free green list countries, including Portugal and Israel, from May 17.

Holiday company Tui said it had the best day of sales this year, with more than half of holidaymakers booking trips to Portugal.

However, industry body the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) said there had been no increase in holiday bookings in Scotland because arrivals to Scottish airports must still enter hotel quarantine.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously told Scots May 17 was the earliest date for the lifting of restrictions on foreign holidays. Shapps said on Friday he expected Scotland to sign up to the same traffic light system as England. Wales and Northern Ireland are also expected to opt in.

Joanne Dooey, president of the SPAA, said: ‘Scots travellers lack confidence in booking.

‘Lack confidence in booking’

Confidence can only return once we know if Scotland will follow suit. We need the First Minister to agree to the four nations approach.

‘The key concern is that, the longer we have to wait for the Scottish position to be clear, the higher the chance that travellers will opt to travel south of the Border for departures, depriving Scottish airports, travel operators and the wider economy of the expenditure.’

The Scottish Government said the new administration would announce its plans as soon as possible, with a spokesman suggesting this could be as early as today.

However, Miss Sturgeon remains concerned about the importation of new variants of Covid19 potentially leading to outbreaks similar to those seen last summer – which resulted in a second lockdown. n THE backlash over the foreign holidays roadmap intensified last night as figures showed the grounding of planes has blown a £3billion hole in Treasury coffers.

The collapse in Air Passenger Duty revenues sparked calls to speed up the reopening of foreign travel after just 12 destinations were cleared for quarantine-free trips from May 17.

Many destinations have strict entry measures or blanket bans on UK tourists. Portugal and Gibraltar are the only ‘green list’ countries most Britons will realistically be able to visit.