UK ministers are preparing to add a handful of countries to the government’s “green list” of travel destinations this week, but will stop short of the major expansion the leisure industry has called for.
Territories under consideration include Spain’s Balearic and Canary Islands, plus Malta, although UK government officials said no final decisions have been taken.
Grant Shapps, transport secretary, on Thursday will unveil the revised green list of countries from which people originally travelling from England do not need to quarantine on their return, with changes to the arrangements due to take effect next week.
UK officials are not expecting Shapps to announce a “big bang” expansion of the list.
He will be guided by work from the government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre, part of the health department, which takes into account data including coronavirus case numbers, the prevalence of new variants, Covid-19 vaccination rates, and whether local statistics are reliable.
Only a dozen territories — including Portugal, Israel and Iceland — were put on the green list when it was first unveiled last month as part of England’s so-called traffic light system for overseas travel.
The leisure industry has been stepping up calls for popular tourist destinations to be added to the list in time for the summer holiday season.
Several European countries including Malta, Finland and Poland that are on the government’s “amber list” currently have lower average daily rates of cases and a higher proportion of the population vaccinated with at least one jab than Portugal did when it was added to the green list, according to FT analysis.
Spain does not, but ministers have indicated they will consider island holiday destinations separately.
Passengers coming to England from amber-list countries must quarantine at home for 10 days and take at least two costly PCR tests.
Last month Shapps held out the prospect of British holiday makers going to France and other European destinations this summer by moving the countries from the amber to the green list, as he urged people to be “a little patient”.
He has warned people not to take holidays in countries on the amber list, but said: “I don’t think people have a very long time to wait before other countries are able to join the green list.”
Passengers going to England from countries on the green list must take a pre-departure test. They also have to do a PCR test on the second day after their return.
Ryanair on Monday said hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers had booked flights to Spain, Italy and the Greek islands this summer, even though all three countries are on the amber list.
Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said: “The highly successful UK vaccine rollout has already enabled hundreds and thousands of British families to book their flights to Portugal this summer, and today we call on Grant Shapps to include all EU countries in the next revision of the UK’s green list.”
But with UK case numbers rising, there is concern within the travel industry that more countries could follow France, Germany and Austria and introduce restrictions on British tourists.
UK airports will also face a major test this week as a significant number of British holidaymakers return from Portugal after half-term school holidays.
There have been warnings of big queues as Border Force officials manually check people’s coronavirus paperwork.
Additional reporting by Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart, Martin Stabe and Oli Elliott