Govt exploring traffic light system for travel restart – reports

Jersey has announced it will reintroduce its traffic light system from 26 April. There, those arriving from the UK and other Crown dependencies from 26 April will have to provide their travel history in advance via an online portal, and submit to PCR testing for Covid-19 on days five and 10 following their arrival.

Green zone arrivals will have to isolate until they have a negative result from their arrival test; those arriving from amber zones will have to self-isolate until they receive a day five negative test result, and those from red zones a day ten negative test result.

The reports in both The Guardian and The Telegraph followed a string of comments from ministers and scientists feeding into the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) over the weekend suggesting international travel would pose a significant risk of the UK importing new Covid-19 variants that could be resistant to the vaccines currently being rolled out.

Several leading travel industry figures said the speculation was unhelpful, and called again on the Global Travel Taskforce to come up with a robust framework that would allow travel to resume in a more seamless manner than via last summer’s travel corridor system.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, said: "The speculation over the weekend with regards to summer holidays not being possible this summer is damaging to the travel industry and consumer confidence, and serves no purpose until we see what is announced in the Global Travel Taskforce report.

"As we’ve already seen throughout the pandemic, a lot can happen in the space of a few months. While a ’traffic-light system’ may work in terms of highlighting which countries are safe to travel to, what we don’t want is countries coming on and off the list like last year.

"This causes confusion for travellers, dents consumer confidence for those who have booked trips and throws up huge operational challenges for travel agents and the travel industry."

‘Tiered, risk-based system’

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, the trade body representing UK-registered airlines, said its focus was to work with ministers on a framework for travel "that is robust and workable, and can stand the test of time as we enter the all-important summer period".

"We know universal, restriction-free travel is unlikely from 17 May but under a tiered system, based on risk, international travel can meaningfully restart and build up, with minimal restrictions in time."

Which? Travel editor Rory Boland added the government should make safety, affordable tests, vaccine certification and clarity about refunds when travel is disrupted top priorities.

"So far as it is possible, rules and requirements for travel should remain consistent, as confusion and changes will leave travellers footing the bill again and further risk undermining consumers’ confidence in booking travel," said Boland.