UK: International travel banned until 17 May at earliest

nternational travel will be banned until at least 17 May, the prime minister has announced. Outlining the road map out of lockdown to parliament this afternoon, Boris Johnson said that leisure travel overseas could restart in May at the earliest, alongside the reopening of hotels and B&Bs in England. Leisure travel both domestically and internationally has been banned since the start of January. Travel is currently allowed for a tight set of circumstances, including business and for compassionate reasons, and the government has repeatedly warned people that holidays are illegal. The tentative reopening date follows weeks of speculation from the industry as to when international travel might be allowed again. Many leading travel industry figures have demanded more clarity from the government, including Abta, the Association of British Travel Agents, which this morning published an open letter to the government. Hoteliers and organisations such as Butlins and Center Parcs will be appalled to see that their reopening have been pushed so far back. Until the prime minister’s announcement, they had been selling holidays to begin as soon as 8 March. Johnson announced that the new Global Travel Task Force would report on 12 April as to whether outbound summer holidays could go ahead from May. “We’re grateful to the prime minister and Department for Transport for providing the clarity the whole sector was looking for that international travel can reopen this summer, as soon as it is safe to do so,” said Tim Alderslade, CE of Airlines UK. “This will provide much needed reassurance not only to airlines in desperate need of a summer season but families looking to visit friends and family and take a long-awaited holiday, and we know there is enormous pent-up demand for when we can restart operations.”<br/>