Abta: 'Give us the principles for restarting travel'

Priorities for the coalition include updates on work with other countries on reciprocal vaccine certification, guidance on testing requirements and how the government proposed to bring down the cost of testing, and changes to the Foreign Office’s travel advice regime.

"No industry more urgently needs positive news from the prime minister on 22 February than the travel industry," said the coalition in a joint blog post on Wednesday lunchtime (17 February).

"[It is] the sector hit hardest by the pandemic, with many businesses and thousands of jobs already lost to the crisis. We need government to work with us on a roadmap to recovery and we hope Boris Johnson speaks to this in his address to the nation on Monday."

The coalition warned the industry, nor the economy, could not afford to lose another summer to the pandemic, and nor could it wait for the UK’s vaccination programme to be completed in its entirety before travel is allowed to resume.

"The government must work to get people travelling in time for the summer, recognising the return to normal life will never be entirely risk-free," read the post.

"We don’t expect the government to a provide specific date for a return to travel. It is clearly too early for that, as there are still a number of unknowns, including the effectiveness of the vaccine against new Covid variants and its ability to stop transmission of the virus.

"Full customer confidence will only return when these questions have been answered."