Canaries corridor decision 'absolutely devastating' for travel

Lo Bue-Said said agents and operators would now be left with the thankless task of rebooking and refunding some of the scant business the trade has been able to do in recent months.

Which? Travel editor Rory Boland warned the removal of the Canaries travel corridor on the cusp of the winter sun season would like "send some holiday companies bankrupt".

Shapps confirmed the move on the afternoon of 10 December, while announcing Botswana and Saudi Arabia would be added to the travel corridor list.

However, his announcement threw the situation into further doubt when he tweeted half-an-hour later that the government’s vaunted "test to release" regime would come into effect on 15 December as planned.

This will allow those returning from non-travel corridor destinations to take a test upon their return which, if negative, could cut their mandatory self-isolation requirement to five days.

The Foreign Office, though, is yet to update its travel advice in respect of the Canaries, leaving agents, operators and passengers in limbo with regards to how to proceed; a change in FCDO advice to advise against travel to the Canaries would likely force operators to pull their programmes on insurance grounds.

The addition of the Canary Islands to the travel corridor list in late October came as one of the few positives travel has experienced in recent months, giving agents and operators hopes of getting passengers away over Christmas and New Year to drive cash flow.

It also follows a decision by the government of the Canary Islands, which came into force the same day Shapps announced the travel corridor was being axed, to allow holidaymakers to travel to the Canaries on a cheaper, quicker pre-travel antigen test for Covid, rather than a PCR test – a move which would have made the destination even more accessible to UK travellers.

Tui said it was "aware" of the government’s decision, but stressed its Canaries holidays were currently operating as planned. "We would like to assure customers that we will contact them directly if their holiday is affected," said Tui.

"Any customers due to travel from Friday 11 December up to and including Thursday 17 December have the option to amend for free to any holiday that’s currently on sale."

TTG has approached Jet2holidays for comment on its Canaries programme.