A HOLIDAY abroad may not be able not be able to go ahead from May, as tour operators are already allowing families to move their half-term holidays.
The UK government's Global Travel Taskforce is to announce on April 12 when overseas trips will be able to restart, with the earliest suggested date to be May 17.
However, there is uncertainty regarding the official start date of holidays abroad despite the UK's successful vaccine rollout, as other countries in Europe lag behind.
While 36 per cent of the UK population has had their first Covid jab, France, Spain and Greece are all less than nine per cent.
Other holiday hotspots such as Turkey aren't doing much better with just 9.4 per cent given the first Covid jab.
Not only that, but some destinations are still seeing soaring cases of Covid – daily new cases in Italy and France are more than 20,000, while Greece saw more than 3,000 new cases on March 13, one of the highest rates since the pandemic started.
Tour operators and airlines are now letting holidaymakers move their dates for free.
TUI has said that all bookings are now from July onwards while bookings for May and June are allowed to be moved for free to a different date or location.
Ryanair has also extended its free flight change policy until June 30.
However, Jet2 has told Majorcan hoteliers to prepare for the “massive arrival” of British holidaymakers from June 2.
It said: “Jet2 has informed Majorcan hoteliers that it is scheduling the beginning of the massive arrival of Brits on the island for June 2.
“This is what Preferente has been told by tourist chiefs.”
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathon Van Tam previously warned that there are a number of concerns regarding holidays resuming to popular hotspots abroad.
He said: "We are still in a zone of great uncertainty about what the virus will do next.
"On top of that many of the vaccination programmes in Europe, a place where we frequently go on holiday, are running behind ours.
"Whether we can go on holidays abroad depends on what other countries will say and do in terms of foreign tourism.
"I am not going to give you a firm answer, I don't think there is one at this point."
While there is no certainty that foreign holidays will go ahead at all this
summer, several countries including Spain, Cyprus and Greece have said that they are in talks with the UK government about travel
corridors.
Vaccine passports are also being suggested as a way to allow fully-vaccinated travellers to enter countries without restrictions such as negative Covid tests or mandatory quarantines.
Portugal was recently removed from the UK's "red-list" meaning returning Brits can avoid paying to quarantine in a government-mandated hotel, while France as lifted the UK travel ban.
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