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Summer holiday air bridges: Government confirms ‘traffic light system’ to make international travel easier for Britons in July

All countries will be divided according to a traffic light scheme which classifies how risky they are to visit

Britons can go on summer holidays from the first week of July after the UK Government confirmed that travel to and from popular destinations will be allowed without the need to quarantine.

Ministers will confirm a list of “air bridges” with other countries in the coming week in a bid to restart travel for business and leisure. All countries will be classified as green, amber or red depending on their coronavirus risk.

Coronavirus latest

Anyone arriving in the UK from a country on the red list will have to self-isolate for 14 days, as now. But air bridges will be set up with green and amber countries – including the most popular holiday hotspots such as France, Spain and Greece.

From the first full week of July, Britons and foreigners travelling from safe countries will not need to quarantine at either end of the journey. But they will be asked to give their travel and contact details to border officials via an online “passenger locator form”, creating the potential for chaos in the UK’s airports and possible data breaches in future.

Compulsory masks

A new law will require all travellers to wear masks on board planes and ferries, given the difficulties of social distancing in those settings.

The “traffic light” system has been drawn up by the Joint Biosecurity Centre working with Public Health England. Whitehall officials emphasised that countries can change categories if they suffer fresh outbreaks of Covid-19.

Currently, official travel advice warns against all non-essential journeys outside the UK. That will change on 6 July, when the Foreign Office is expected to change its advice to enable Britons to visit countries seen as safe.

The USA and Ireland are among the countries with close ties to Britain which are not expected to be part of the air bridges scheme, meaning travel there will remain extremely restricted. Ministers are confident of finalising deals with a number of European countries which are dependent on tourism from the UK.

Tourists prepare to board buses upon arrival at the Son Sant Joan airport in Palma de Mallorca on June 22, 2020 as EU member state citizens and those from the passport-free Schengen zone were allowed freely into Spain, with no 14-day quarantines required following a national lockdown to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP) (Photo by JAIME REINA/AFP via Getty Images)
European tourists arriving in Mallorca recently (Photo: AFP/Getty)

They are all likely to be on the “amber” list, denoting that they have had serious Covid-19 outbreaks but the risk of infection is now low. The “green” list of countries with no significant coronavirus risk will consist of small island nations and other countries which never suffered a major epidemic of the virus.

Among the “red” list countries will be the USA, where transmission of Covid-19 is stubbornly high and increasing in many states, and Brazil. Donald Trump has closed America’s borders to citizens of the UK and other European countries.

The Republic of Ireland also presents difficulties because the Government there continues to insist that Britons must go into quarantine if they wish to enter the country, due to the relatively high number of coronavirus cases in the UK.

It is likely that some countries deemed safe by the Joint Biosecurity Centre will nonetheless remain closed for tourism because of their stringent border control measures.

‘Baseless’

A Government spokesman said: “Our public health measures at the border were put in place to manage the risk of imported cases and help prevent a second wave of the virus, and will continue to support our fight against coronavirus.

“Our new risk-assessment system will enable us to carefully open a number of safe travel routes around the world – giving people the opportunity for a summer holiday abroad and boosting the UK economy through tourism and business. But we will not hesitate to put on the brakes if any risks re-emerge, and this system will enable us to take swift action to re-introduce self-isolation measures if new outbreaks occur overseas.”

The travel industry has welcomed the prospect of air bridges – although some want the Government to go further and scrap the quarantine scheme altogether. A spokesperson for industry group ABTA said: “It is encouraging that the Government has concluded its first review of its public health measures at the border, and that passengers arriving from certain destinations will not be required to quarantine. Confirmation of the list of countries is eagerly anticipated by the travel industry, and should encourage customers to book.”

A Ryanair spokesman added: “Air bridges are baseless. The UK Government must remove its failed visitor quarantine by the end of June, when almost all other European countries will have removed their travel restrictions.”

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