U.K. Adds Balearics, Malta to Quarantine-Free Travel List

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. added Spain’s Balearic islands and Malta onto its quarantine-free “green” travel list, and said rules will be relaxed for more countries later for people who are double-vaccinated against coronavirus.

The announcement on Thursday is a boost to the country’s ailing airlines and travel industry ahead of the school holidays which begin next month. Bermuda, Madeira, and a number of Caribbean destinations were also added to the list.

Opening up the island destinations to U.K. tourists will offer some measure of relief to a U.K. aviation industry that’s been whipsawed by changing travel rules -- most recently when Portugal was abruptly pulled off the green list.

But there was also a measure of caution: All the new additions, bar Malta, were also put on the green watch list -- meaning they could be placed on the medium-risk amber list at short notice.

Under the U.K.’s traffic-light system, destinations are coded red for those with the highest Covid-19 danger, amber for moderate risk and green for low risk. Travelers returning from green-listed countries do not need to quarantine, but those on the amber and red lists must isolate for 10 days after arrival.

Double Vaccination

The government said it plans to ease rules further “later in the summer” to allow people who are double-vaccinated to return from amber countries without needing to self-isolate. Details will be set out next month, including the rules for children and when the changes will come into effect, it said.

“We’re moving forward with efforts to safely reopen international travel this summer, and thanks to the success of our vaccination program, we’re now able to consider removing the quarantine period for fully vaccinated U.K. arrivals from amber countries, showing a real sign of progress,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.

Executives at carriers including EasyJet Plc, Ryanair Holdings Plc and British Airways rely on the U.K., the biggest supplier of tourists in Europe alongside Germany, for big chunks of their business. They’ve grown increasingly frustrated with their hands tied as nearby countries in the European Union steadily relax their borders.

While the industry welcomed Thursday’s move, they said it doesn’t go far enough. Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Officer Shai Weiss said in a statement the U.S. should have been added to the green list. EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said the government’s timetable for resuming international travel “simply isn’t ambitious enough.”

‘Lost Summer’

“There are some airlines that have already lost another summer,” Willie Walsh, the head of the International Air Transport Association trade group, said in an interview before the announcement. He cited Aer Lingus, the Irish carrier he once ran and oversaw as chief executive officer of British Airways owner IAG SA. It’s dependent on transatlantic travel and is in a situation that’s “much more difficult than others.”

Airport Operators Association CEO Karen Dee said the announcement is “not yet the vaccine dividend people in the U.K. had hoped for.”

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had not ruled out taking a foreign holiday himself this year but cautioned travel overseas would continue to be disrupted by the pandemic.

“The real opportunity we all have now is to open up travel through the double jab,” Johnson said in pooled broadcast interview. More than 60% of U.K. adults have now received their second vaccine dose.

Yet the prospects for Britons hoping to take trips in Europe are uncertain. Italy has imposed a five-day quarantine rule on people arriving from the U.K. due to the rise in British cases of the fast-spreading delta variant of coronavirus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also suggested the whole European Union should coordinate its rules closely and be more cautious about allowing entry to travelers from countries outside the bloc with high rates of the delta variant -- which would include the U.K.

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