Britain: Johnson hopes for leisure travel abroad on May 17

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson has stated that May 17 has not been abandoned as the date on which his government hopes to allow international leisure travel.

He made the remarks at noon on Tuesday during a visit to an AstraZeneca lab in Macclesfield following remarks he made on Monday about how soon the British would be able to take a holiday abroad.

He acknowledged that their numbers were not enough to defeat his government, but said that the government needed to be "prudent".

"I want to see international travel resume. We must be realistic. Many of the destinations we want to go to for the time being are suffering from a new wave of disease, Covid as we know it. "We can not do it right away, but that does not mean we have to give up on May 17."

The British Prime Minister also seemed to respond positively to the request of the CEO of easyJet to allow travelers from "green" countries to come to Britain with fast tests and not molecular ones.

The government announced that when the system of categorization of countries into "green", "orange" and "red" is adopted, all travelers will be required to take negative tests before departure and after arrival, with the differentiation by category being only a quarantine obligation. .

The announcement, as well as the uncertainty about when international leisure travel will be allowed again, provoked reactions from the British travel industry.

In addition to easyJet's Johan Ludgren's reaction, British Travel Association CEO Clive Ratten called the announcements "more than disappointing", while Flight Center travel group Steve Norris said the travel industry "still can't stand a summer uncertainty and hesitation ".

The Association of Independent Travel Agents accused the government of behaving "as if it ignored the existence" of the travel sector, while the director of the travel consulting company PC Agency Paul Charles called for greater clarity from the government as soon as possible, considering that its opening May 17 is possible.

The same optimistic assessment was made by the head of British Airways Sean Doyle, while Jet2 announced that it will continue to offer holiday packages for the end of May and beyond.

Mr Johnson said the head of easyJet was right to emphasize the issue of tests required for arrivals in Britain, commenting that the government wanted to make the process as easy, flexible and economical as possible.