Canaries corridor ‘game-changing’ Samantha Mayling


Travel firms reported a surge in demand for the Canary Islands and Maldives, and were hopeful of salvaging a winter market, despite confusion and complications about travel to the destinations. Advantage Travel Partnership’s


managed services division saw bookings to the Canaries double against last year between Thursday, when the destinations were the added to the UK’s travel corridor list, and Sunday. For the Maldives, it recorded a near 500% increase. Barrhead Travel said bookings


over the weekend were “dominated” by winter sun in the Canaries, with Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria its top-three destinations.


OTA lastminute.com saw a spike


in Canary Island bookings, with Gran Canaria bookings between October 22 and 25 soaring 48-fold against the previous four days. Jet2holidays said it had taken


bookings for 29,600 passengers for the Canaries since the announcement. The operator and rival Tui


immediately launched programmes after the transport secretary’s announcement. Airlines, including easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air, responded to high demand by piling on capacity to the Spanish islands now British holidaymakers no longer have to quarantine on their return. Speaking on a Travel Weekly


webcast, Jet2holidays head of trade Alan Cross said the addition of the Canaries was a “confidence builder”


More people


are looking to book with a travel agent because [the travel rules] are so complex


for holidaymakers and told agents “peaks start now, not in January”. Miles Morgan Travel chairman


Miles Morgan Travel welcomed the “brilliant news”, which he said was “game-changing” for the winter market, but added he was “nervous” that the islands might be removed from the safe lists after a few weeks, as Spain was in July. The Canary Islands tourist board said it was due to announce a testing


regime for UK arrivals this week, as agents reported a lack of clarity on requirements. Making bookings for the Maldives


was “horrendously complicated”, warned Kuoni boss Derek Jones. He highlighted restrictions for those returning from the destination via countries where flights connect, and only one direct BA flight. Visitors to the Maldives also require a negative PCR test taken within 96 hours of departure. Advantage leisure director Kelly


Cookes said “more people are looking to book with a travel agent because these things are so complex”. Abta said the addition of the


destinations, plus Mykonos and Denmark, to the corridors list “is a bit of light at the end of a very dark tunnel” after “a terrible summer”.


Hopes grow for a flexible system for Covid testing


Ian Taylor


Covid tests for travellers moved a step closer as the government’s Global Travel Taskforce prepares to report to the PM next month, with industry leaders hoping for a system flexible enough to adapt as testing technology develops. A leading airline source told Travel


Weekly: “Tests and technologies are evolving all the time. We need flexibility so as things develop we can bring on new technologies quickly.” A second aviation source agreed, saying: “We want to get to a place


4 29 OCTOBER 2020


where the system is flexible, where anything brought in could change in three months.” The sources dismissed a Sunday


Times report that the government is considering a quarantine exemption for “City dealmakers and company bosses flying into the UK”. The aviation source said: “We’ve been told they’ve rowed back on an exemption for business people.” The airline source added: “We


might not be sitting on the taskforce but we’re absolutely engaged with it.” In other developments, Boots


unveiled plans to offer rapid Covid tests


for £120 to people without symptoms. The tests will be available in 50 stores from November but, as antigen tests, they are not recognised by disease control authorities and not authorised as pre-flight tests. Boots already offers 48-hour pre-flight tests in 10 stores. The trial of app-based Covid-


health passport CommonPass on a Heathrow-New York flight was hailed a success. Passengers on the United flight to Newark took a Covid test 72 hours before departure and logged the results on their phones for scanning by airline and border staff. It is hoped CommonPass will spur


Travel industry executives,


including WTTC president Gloria Guevara, observe the trial of CommonPass at Heathrow


cross-border coordination on testing. An airline-commissioned review


of Public Health England modelling which underpins the government’s quarantine policy concluded the work was “flawed”, leading Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss to demand the taskforce “swiftly implement a testing regime which removes 14-day quarantine”. However, transport secretary


Grant Shapps made clear last week the taskforce has already “agreed on a regime based on a single test a week


after arrival”. i More on testing, page 7 and back page


travelweekly.co.uk


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