Britain is set to remove Portugal from its quarantine-free travel list and no new countries will be added, the BBC reported, essentially shutting down the UK's leisure travel market once again in a hammer blow for airlines.
Britain permitted to travel on May 17 after over four months of lockdown, but the limited reopening will be even more restrictive if Portugal, the only big beach destination which had been open, is also taken off the safe travel list. Portugal has been a lifeline for airlines and travel companies over the last three weeks, and its removal would deepen the crisis for the travel industry which had looked to June for a recovery to start.
Airlines like EasyJet and British Airways and travel companies like TUI and Jet2, already weakened by 15 months of lockdowns, will be severely financially challenged if there is no reopening this summer.
Shares in EasyJet traded down 4.5%, while TUI was down 3% and Jet2 was down 6% after the BBC reports.
Other popular destinations like Spain, France, Italy, and the United States are on an amber list. Travel to amber and red countries is not illegal but it is discouraged. Worries over new more transmissible variants of coronavirus are now threatening the European peak travel summer season when millions of Britons usually head to southern Europe in July and August.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the travel industry on Wednesday that protecting the country's vaccine roll-out was his priority. "I want you to know we will have no hesitation in moving countries from the green list to the amber list to the red list if we have to do so. The priority is to continue the vaccine rollout, to protect the people of this country," he told reporters.
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