Canaries, Maldives and Mykonos granted travel corridors

In his regular Thursday afternoon update, Shapps tweeted to say the destinations would now be able to be visited by Brits without the need to self-isolate upon their return.

Denmark has also been added, with the corridors coming into effect from 4am on Sunday (25 October).

Shapps also announced that Liechtenstein would have its corridor revoked from 4am Sunday, with those returning to the UK from the country permitted to self-isolate for 14-days.

Following the announcement, Jet2 and Tui each announced they’d be restarting operations to the Canaries this month.

An Abta spokesperson said: “After a terrible summer season, the removal of the need to quarantine when returning to the UK from the Canary Islands, the Maldives, Denmark and Mykonos is a bit of light at the end of a very dark tunnel for the travel industry.

“We have been highlighting the need to move to a regional approach to quarantine, citing the Canary Islands as a specific example, so it is good to see the government take action on this today.

“But we must remember that the pandemic brought foreign travel to a standstill and for most companies there has been little or no chance to start a recovery.

"The chancellor’s update to the Job Support Scheme today, while an improvement, still leaves many travel companies facing difficult decisions around jobs in the weeks ahead.

"The government needs to look at introducing tailored support for the industry to help companies through the winter.

"It is also vital that the government seeks to fully regionalise travel corridors and transition away from the current global advisory against all but essential travel by moving back to country specific foreign travel advice.”