Travel news latest: Tour operator offers holidaymakers free Covid tests in industry first

The Australian government has confirmed plans to introduce internationally recognised vaccine certificates to help facilitate overseas travel. It is expected the system will be in place within weeks. 

Trade Minister Dan Tehan told reporters: “We’re in the process of planning that [vaccine certificates] so that in the coming weeks we will have a system up and ready so when we hit that 70% or 80% vaccination mark Australians will be able to travel overseas again and also Australians will be able to return home in greater numbers.” 

Green and amber traffic light ratings could be scrapped next month, but before that we’ll have a review of the current categories next week. 

Here is how things currently stand. 

The New Zealand government is walking back on its border reopening strategy after dealing with a delta variant outbreak. 

The Government had tentatively planned to reopen in early 2022, with a system that ranked countries according to vaccination and virus rates. However, minister Chris Hipkins told parliament on Tuesday that the plan would have to be completely reworked after an outbreak of the highly contagious delta variant.

Mr Hipkins said: “We were looking at a situation where you could stratify countries based on risk, and I think in the delta environment, we actually have to consider whether, in fact, that’s an appropriate thing to do, recognising that all countries, all people coming into the country at this point, have a degree of risk associated with them.

“Obviously, at the moment, the focus is on responding to the current outbreak, but I think we will have to look again at some of that thinking around particularly the country-risk profiling, because I think Delta has changed the game,” he added.

A new low-cost rail route between London and Edinburgh, rivalling budget airlines, could herald the dawn of a new era for British travel, writes Adrian Bridge.

The new service, set up by the FirstGroup travel conglomerate under the name Lumo, will see starting fares between the two capital cities tumble to below £15. For an initial period, no one-way fare will be above £20; after that, 60 per cent will be £30 or less.

Lumo’s main target audience is the airlines that fly between the two cities (mainly EasyJet and British Airways) and the passengers who would love to be environmentally responsible – but who don’t want to pay through the nose for the privilege.

According to rail aficionado Mark Smith – alias the Man in Seat 61, whose website offers advice and booking information for train journeys worldwide – the move could herald a wider change that will see more people opting for low carbon emission rail travel in the UK over flying.

Read the full story.

Sykes Cottages has reported that bookings for next summer are up 62 per cent when compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The news comes as many holiday letting companies have reported booking surges as people seek to secure summer breaks for 2022.  

Graham Donoghue, CEO of Sykes Holiday Cottages, said:

“After more than a year of restrictions and uncertainty, this summer we’ve seen the appetite for holidays at home grow stronger than ever with more than half of Brits choosing UK breaks over foreign trips.

“As we look ahead to next year, many have already started booking their summer 2022 holidays with us, suggesting that the Great British staycation is fast becoming the holiday of choice.”

It may have been a decidedly soggy summer, but this hasn’t dampened the demand for staycations. In fact, in yet another pandemic shift, self-catering operators are reporting a surge in bookings for holiday lets next summer, with many top spots already full up during the peak months of July and August. 

Take the UK’s holiday capital of Cornwall, where high-end lettings agent Cornish Gems has reported its properties are already 59 per cent full during the summer. And demand has rocketed recently, with an 84 per cent increase in bookings this week compared to the same time last year. Overall, the company says it now has 544 bookings in place for summer 2022 – a 55 per cent increase on last year. 

It’s a similar story for south west specialist Classic Cottages, which has reported three times more bookings than usual, with spots like Port Isaac and St Ives particularly jam-packed. Elsewhere, glamping expert Canopy & Stars say its sites are nearly at 40 per cent capacity for next summer. One of its most popular spaces, Bowcombe Boathouse, a fairytale waterside cabin in Devon, is already booked from April through to July and has even had a few bookings for 2023.

Read the full story.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has restated the airline’s intention to ban unvaccinated travellers once Australia’s borders reopen.

Speaking to the to the Trans-Tasman Business Circle, Mr Joyce said: ”Qantas will have a policy that internationally we’ll only be carrying vaccinated passengers, because we think that’s going to be one of the requirements to show that you’re flying safe and getting into those countries. We’re hoping that can happen by Christmas.”

The Australian carrier will also require all crew to be vaccinated by November 15, though there will be allowances for medical exemptions.

“We think everybody should be protecting themselves, but we also have a requirement to protect our colleagues and our passengers. And then there’s also a requirement to protect the community,”Mr Joyce said.

Canada reopened to fully vaccinated travellers yesterday and the first images of arriving passengers have emerged from Vancouver.

Not all restrictions are eased, however. Fully vaccinated visitors must still show proof of a recent negative test to enter Canada. 

As fast as we get a glimmer of hope for the restoration of holiday travel across the Atlantic, along comes another slice of Covid calamity to dash those dreams on the rocky precipice that is the pandemic.

The latest underwhelming news suggests that any end to the ban is unlikely before the big American holiday of Thanksgiving (November 25), despite Britain and the European Union allowing the unrestricted return of fully vaccinated US visitors since August 2, which had been seen as a significant step towards the re-opening of two-way traffic.

Find all the information, here. 

New low-cost train service Lumo has confirmed it will accept railcard discounts when it launches next month.

The operator will run services  on the UK’s East Coast main line from this October, with one-way fares starting at less than £15.

Lumo will initially offer two services a day each direction between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, starting October 25.  Services will increase to five daily trips as new trains are delivered.

The trip will take around four-and-a-half hours, with stops in Newcastle and the Northumberland town of Morpeth. Some trains will also call at Stevenage.

After a soggy summer, the start of September has brought a welcome blast of heat. Here are shots of people enjoying the sunshine around the UK.

View the full gallery here.

Standing beside a gleaming Airbus A320neo, its livery emblazoned with the pledge ‘Our most important journey yet’, Sean Doyle – CEO of BA – revealed the airline’s plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The press conference, held at Heathrow on Tuesday morning, seemed to be experiencing a greenhouse effect of its own. The huge glass-roofed aircraft hangar blazed with unseasonable sunshine, the temperature soaring as engines roared on the runway, just a few hundred metres away. Here at the sharp end of the aviation industry – thought-shatteringly close to the action – one of its biggest players was laying down the gauntlet. 

But how will this impact your BA flight – both now, and in the future? The changes are happening right now; here are the ones you might spot on your next trip. 

Need a reminder of how things currently stand and the entry requirements in top holiday destinations? Here we breakdown everything you need to know when planning a holiday to an amber destination this autumn. 

Read the full story.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of Advantage Travel Partnership, has urged the Government to take a “holistic” approach to any traffic light changes rather than simply tweaking the current “broken framework”.

She criticises the “meaningless testing” for fully vaccinated returning travellers and the “inhumane” hotel quarantine system

Read her full quote below. 

Any plan to scrap the traffic light system needs to be done so in a manner that takes an holistic view of the process and not just putting a sticky plaster over the current broken framework. The onerous and meaningless testing for fully vaccinated travellers needs to go as does the inhumane imprisonment of travellers in hotel quarantine and replace with self- isolation at final inbound destination.

If ministers are minded to develop a new system they need to firstly take a good look at the data which clearly shows positivity rate from international travel was three times lower than that of the UK [since May] and then reflect on where the risk lies.

Travellers are being forced to pay for expensive PCR tests which are  disproportionate to the risk especially from Green and Amber countries where not a single Very High or High Priority VOCs/VUIs were imported in the last 3 week period of data available.

Given every other economic setting in the domestic roadmap has now fully opened and the government is unwilling to extend furlough or offer dedicated support, the government has a duty to the British public, the travel industry and the millions employed in the sector to now do the right thing and stop this chaotic system which is delivering no demonstrable public health benefit.

New Zealand reported a further fall in locally acquired Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, as the largely coronavirus-free nation looks to eradicate an outbreak of the delta variant.

New Zealand reported 15 new locally acquired cases, down from 21 a day earlier, on the first day of an easing of tough restrictions in all regions outside its largest city Auckland.

Daily infections hit a peak of 85 on Aug. 29. All of the latest cases were in Auckland

Travel industry insiders have taken to Twitter to discuss the potential scrapping of the amber and green traffic light catergories. 

Among them are Paul Charles, of travel consultancy the PC agency, who describes the possible move as a “relief” and more in line with the US system.

On Friday September 10, Denmark will lift all its last Covid restrictions, with the government having declared the virus “no longer a critical threat to society”, thanks to having vaccinated 72 per cent of the population (the UK is at 62 per cent).

“The epidemic is under control,” the health minister, Magnus Heunicke, announced last week, acknowledging the government’s right to impose special Covid-related powers was coming to an end.

Denmark, which on March 11 2020, was the first country in northern Europe to bring in lockdown restrictions, is now becoming the trailblazer in removing them.

And in doing so, the land of Lego could be teaching the rest of the world how to rebuild normality – even though the Danes are not claiming to have vanquished the disease, just to having found a way to live with it.

Read the full story.

Those who are planning a half term holiday will be heartened to hear that the Health Secretary has not thought about a so-called firebreak in October.

Sajid Javid told Sky News: “I don’t think that’s something we need to consider. I haven’t even thought about that as an option at this point.

“I think the decisions that we’ve made in the last few weeks and certainly in the time I’ve been Heath Secretary, I think they’ve turned out to be the right decisions.”

He said no decisions are “risk-free” but insisted the “best defence” against another wave of the virus is the vaccine programme.

The traffic light system for travel could be scrapped under plans being drawn up by ministers to simplify holidays.

Officials have been told to develop a new system based on the vaccination status of travellers rather than the Covid rating of the country they are visiting.

It is likely to mean amber and green will disappear as separate categories, although red will continue with travellers still required to quarantine in hotels on returning from high-risk destinations.

Double-jabbed holidaymakers can already travel to amber countries without having to quarantine on their return after the Government ditched the requirement to self-isolate.

It means that for fully-vaccinated travellers, visiting amber or green countries is exactly the same, requiring only pre-departure tests and then a PCR test within two days of returning to the UK.

Read the full story.

A recap of the top stories

• Heathrow PCR tests to deliver results in three hours
• Number of Britons who think holiday tests are necessary has fallen, ONS finds
• Canada opens to vaccinated Britons
• No half-term firebreak but ‘last resort’ plans remain in place, says Government 
• BA unveils plans for ‘net zero carbon emissions’ by 2050

Now, on with today’s travel news.