British airline EasyJet said this week that Britain had “missed the boat” with the government waiting until after the summer holidays for the latest easing of travel rules.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps announced on Friday (September 17) that the amber category in the traffic light system will be scrapped from October 4. Also, from 4am on October 4, pre-departure Covid-19 tests will no longer be required for fully-vaccinated travellers arriving into England from non-red list countries.
The airline’s chief commercial officer Sophie Dekkers told the House of Commons’ transport select committee on Tuesday (September 21) that her team was surprised and delighted with the announcement as they had not expected the removal of PCR test rules, according to a report in Travel Weekly.
But she said there was still “a lot of confusion” about the rules, especially regarding children and non-vaccinated travellers.
“In terms of sales over the weekend, they did pick up but not to the extent that we’ve seen in previous announcements because we’ve missed the summer,” she told the MPs on the committee.
The Mallorcan hoteliers federation said that the easing of the restrictions was a case of better late than never.