Excerpt from The Guardian
Travel industry relieved as interest in trips abroad surges after PM announced rule changes
Travel firms and airlines have reported surging bookings following the relaxation of Covid testing requirements for travellers returning to the UK.
EasyJet said there were almost three times as many flights bought in the UK in the hours following the prime minister’s announcement on Wednesday than in the same period the week before, while holiday firm TUI said there had been “an immediate and strong uptick in bookings”.
British Airways Holidays said searches for holidays on its websites increased by nearly 40% compared with the week before.
From 4am on Friday, international arrivals or holidaymakers returning to England will not need to produce a negative pre-departure test, nor self-isolate until they receive a further negative PCR test result from the first two days on arrival.
The aviation and travel industry had long argued that the prevalence of the Omicron variant meant the measures had little public health benefit but were causing significant damage to their businesses.
Alistair Rowland, chairman of travel association Abta and chief executive of long-haul tour operator Blue Bay Travel, said the scrapping of the pre-departure test and ditching post-arrival PCR tests for lateral flow tests was “a relief for the travel industry and great news for holidaymakers”.
He said that the news had prompted his firm’s busiest day for website traffic and booking inquiries in more than a year, “which is something we couldn’t have imagined a month ago, when these testing rules came in and consumer confidence plummeted”.
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