UK BREAKING: Traffic light system for holidays abroad announced

The Transport Secretary for the UK Government, Grant Shapps, has announced that a new traffic light system is going to be introduced to categorise countries based on risk, and he says the UK will work with the travel industry and private testing providers to reduce the cost of foreign trips and holidays, which could lead to free Covid tests before departure, and less expensive tests when holidaymakers return home.

A report by the Global Travel Taskforce suggests that international travel could resume from May 17th "in an accessible and affordable way", and passengers would no longer need to prove they have a valid reason to leave the UK to travel abroad. But firmer details of what will be allowed under the new measures, and when they will take effect, may only emerge over the next few weeks.

At this stage, the government has refused to confirm whether foreign holidays will be permitted from May 17^th, and where Britons will be able to travel without self-isolating on their return.

Shapps said: "It is too early to predict which countries will be on which list over the summer, and the government is continuing to consider a range of factors to inform the restrictions placed on them. We will set out by early May which countries will fall into which category, as well as confirming whether international travel can resume from May 17^th or not."

Relaxation of travel rules could be delayed if the government believes it will risk the success of the vaccine rollout, and will only resume if vaccines are reducing hospital admissions and deaths enough, infections are not at risk of overwhelming the NHS, and there is not a fundamental change in risks from variants of concern.

Under the traffic light system, assessments will be based on a range of factors, including the proportion of a country's population which has been vaccinated, rates of infection, emerging new variants, and the country's access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.

Restrictions will be "formally reviewed" on June 28th to take account of "the domestic and international health picture and to see whether current measures could be rolled back", the Department of Transport added. Further reviews will take place no later than July 31st and October 1st.

Tim Alderslade, the chief executive of Airlines UK, said this framework "does not represent a reopening of travel as promised by ministers". He added: "The insistence on expensive and unnecessary PCR testing rather than rapid testing, even for low-risk countries, will pose an unsustainable burden on passengers, making travel unviable and unaffordable for many people."

Karen Dee, the head of the Airport Operators Association, said the announcement "offers only a glimmer of hope to an industry battered by more than a year of near-complete shutdown". She said: "Transparent criteria for countries in each travel tier and an indicative green list along with a firm commitment to reopening on May 17^th would boost consumer confidence and we urge the government to publish these shortly."

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the plan 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 low-risk 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".

It has also been revealed the Civil Aviation Authority will be given additional enforcement powers to act on airlines that breach consumer rights, after many passengers struggled to obtain refunds when flights were grounded.