Holidays have not been possible for several months to the immense disappointment of many British travellers. The UK government continues to issue travel advice against anything but essential travel. What’s more, anyone returning to the UK currently has to carry out a two-week quarantine in a bid to limit the spread of coronavirus.
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The quarantine and the effect it will likely have on UK tourism has been a contentious topic of late.
Airlines and travel industry insiders have blasted the rules.
Today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed the future of travel plans.
He made the announcement during Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing.
Johnson revealed he is discussing travel with other countries.
He said he hopes that Britons will be able to jet-set “freely” “as soon as we can.”
This week, the PM will host the French president Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street.
Macron himself will be exempt from the UK existing quarantine regulations.
“Obviously I’ll be talking to Emmanuel Macron about all sorts of ways in which we can bring our countries together,” said Johnson today.
“[We’ll be] making sure that we eventually will be able to travel freely to and from each others’ countries – the same goes obviously for Spain – as soon as we can.”
The Prime Minister also explained the importance of the quarantine.
“The reason for having the quarantine system is very simple as we don’t want to re-import the disease, just at the moment when we’ve really got it under control in this country,” he clarified.
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However, there is still plenty of hope that travel will be possible.
“We’re certainly looking at air bridges and ways to ensure that people can safely go on holiday, eventually,” said Johnson.
An air bridge, also referred to as an air corridor, is a bilateral travel agreement between the UK and another country.
This means people would not need to quarantine when they arrive in the other country, or when they return home.
This morning, Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapp offered a glimmer of hope at the prospect of air bridges with participating countries in the future.
“The actual date for the review is June 29 on the 14-day quarantine,” he said.
“We are, and I am, actively looking at whether we can introduce air corridors or international travel corridors, perhaps with reciprocal arrangements with other countries.”
However, Shapps said there would be no new information released “in the next week.”
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