Passengers visiting or coming back to England from any of the ‘air bridge’ countries that register a reduced risk of importing coronavirus will not be required to self-isolate when they arrive back. The UK’s other devolved nations, however, will be setting out their own timetables soon. The countries currently listed as air bridges include Austria, the Bahamas, Croatia, Denmark, Fiji, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Macau, the Netherlands, Poland, Reunion, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

England’s latest rules take effect as of 10 July. Additionally, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO’s) advice against all but essential worldwide travel, which has remained unchanged since March, has been updated, permitting travel to certain exempted countries, including most of Europe, the Caribbean and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Somewhat confusingly, however, there is not 100-per-cent parity between the list of air bridges and the list of countries for which governmental travel advice has been changed; as a result, for some countries, while travel without quarantine is permitted, FCO advice is still in place, meaning that travel insurance is invalidated. Only 48 destinations are now ‘double exempt’, and cross-referencing the two lists is further complicated by the fact that one official list is alphabetical and one is arranged based on continents.

Never let it be said that governments go out of their way to make things easy...

Despite the confusion, a spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) expressed the Association's enthusiasm: "Travel businesses have been under enormous pressure since the start of the pandemic, and the industry can now start to meet customers' pent-up appetite for travel. Getting the balance of health risk and economic risk is a difficult challenge, and we strongly support the government in taking this initiative.

"There will be some changes to people's travel experiences because of the health and safety measures in place to limit Covid-19, and it will be important going forward that customers speak to their travel provider so that they so they can book and travel with confidence. And, of course, continued access to overseas destinations depends on our keeping Covid infection and transmission rates low in this country, so everyone should continue to heed public health guidelines.

"We now urgently await the approach to be taken by the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to relaxing travel restrictions."