Brits told not to rush into booking holidays as air bridges ‘won’t happen overnight’, says Priti Patel
BRITS have been told not to rush into booking holidays as Priti Patel warns air bridge deals "won't happen overnight".
The Home Secretary said it will “take time” to finalise agreements with other countries on quarantine-free travel.
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No10 is due to today announce the first list of destinations it has struck deals with including France, Spain and Greece.
It had been hoped that Brits would then be able to jet off as early as July 6.
But sunseekers hunting the web for a cheap deal have been warned to put the brakes on until the plans are announced.
Ms Patel told Sky News: "These measures won’t come in overnight. They will take time because some of this will be down to negotiation [and] discussion with certain countries.”
This weekend, Brits crashed holiday websites - with some firms experiencing their busiest Saturday ever as families scrambled for a budget break.
Spain-holiday.com, the third biggest holiday rental site in Spain, said it had seen a 42 per cent surge in bookings making it 24 per cent higher than any previous Saturday.
Meanwhile TUI, Britain's leading tour operator, said they had already seen bookings increase by 50 per cent.
While Airbnb revealed that daily domestic bookings on the accomodation site had doubled from Monday to Tuesday alone.
There were more UK domestic bookings between June 21 and 23 than there were in the entire month of April.
And traffic on Caxton FX’s travel tracker website, which lists the latest travel advice, jumped by 300 per cent on Saturday.
It came after it was revealed travellers would not have to self-isolate for 14 days if they returned from certain countries.
“Green” and “amber” traffic light destinations cover every Europe nation — allowing sunseekers to fly off to favourite hotspots Spain, Greece and France without having to isolate when they return.
Only those flying to “red” countries — Covid hotspots such as the US, Brazil and India — will have to self-isolate on return.
The Foreign Office will continue to advise against all non-essential travel to the red-light nations.
For all three lights, every passenger arriving in the UK will still have to fill out the “passenger locator form” to track any potential virus outbreaks.
Meanwhile, 50 Brits were booted off a flight to Portugal after being wrongly told they could not travel there.
Staff on board the low cost Wizz Air flight told passengers there had been “a change in the rules” which meant those without a Portuguese passport or visa would not be allowed in.
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Police escorted several off the Wizz Air service from Luton to Lisbon at 6.30pm on Saturday.
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Passengers said they have since contacted Lisbon Airport and staff there said there is no such rule in place.
The airline last night apologised for its “genuine mistake”.
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