Britain says exact date on U.S. travel reopening still not known

Britain's transport minister Grant Shapps said on Friday there was still no exact date for when the United States would open for travellers from the United Kingdom, beyond guidance of early November. The lack of clarity on the US opening is one of the final barriers remaining for UK travel after Shapps promised an announcement in the coming days on scrapping the requirement for expensive PCR tests for fully-vaccinated arrivals into England. Asked if he had a specific date for when the U.S. would allow Britons in, Shapps said: "I don't." Transatlantic bookings with airlines like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic surged following the US announcement in September but with no further clarity, concerns are growing that the date could be pushed back. Shapps said he was in touch with his US counterpart and the US ambassador over the matter and that the US still wanted to proceed but it was a matter of working out the technicalities of how to do it. "They're still saying to me, early November," he said.<br/>