Due to the pandemic, it’s no surprise that travellers go through extreme quarantine measures once they get back to their home country. Luckily, Agreements for quarantine-free “air bridges” are expected to be in place by the end of the month to allow holidaymakers to travel abroad. These “air bridges” would essentially allow Brits to skip the post-holiday quarantine measures that they are stuck with as of right now.
According to several sources, including The Times, the UK government is close to agreeing on the deal with Spain, Greece and Portugal as well as other overseas UK territories including Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar. This was then further confirmed by the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, when he revealed that the Government is close to proposing this newfound way of beating the coronavirus and its effects on travel. However, he did not specify which of the countries mentioned above, leading some to believe that either there should be more countries involved or fewer countries than what is currently expected.
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June 29 is the date for the Government’s first review of its controversial quarantine policy, which came into force last week. These were the Health Secretary’s words on the issue.
“The quarantine policy is important because there are some countries around the world where this virus is not under control, however, there’s other countries where it may be safe to be able to not have a quarantine in place.
“So ahead of the formal review of the quarantine arrangements on the 29th of June, I’m working with Grant Shapps on whether there are countries that have a low rate of infection where we can come to an agreement on a travel corridor.”
According to Boris Johnson, there could also be a potential meeting between the UK and France next week to discuss how people from both countries can move around more freely. If these “air bridges” come into effect in early July this could mean that Brits will be able to head out on their planned holidays to Greece, Spain or any other country that the Government is communicating with in terms of this deal.
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The primary purpose of this deal is to help the struggling tourism industry that has been vastly affected by the pandemic. After countless cancelled flights and holidays piling up for UK travel agencies and related businesses, this could eventually bring a rather significant rise from the loss the industry is currently enduring.
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