Grant Shapps will oversee a new taskforce exploring how UK-US travel can resume safely, which is expected to be announced as part of a new Atlantic Charter on Thursday (10 June).

Boris Johnson and Joe Biden will meet ahead of the G7 summit (11-13 June) to discuss a variety of key issues including the pandemic, climate change and travel.

The Atlantic Charter will feature a "principled commitment" to open up travel between the UK and the US "as soon as possible".

However, the proposal was given a lukewarm welcome by travel on Thursday, with travel leaders calling for a more certain and immediate commitment to reopening UK-US travel.

Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss said that while the creation of an Atlantic travel taskforce recognised the importance of the UK-US travel corridor and was a first step towards reopening the skies, the absence of a "definitive timeframe" meant it fell short of providing airlines, businesses and consumers with "much-needed clarity".

"We urge prime minister Boris Johnson and president Biden to use the G7 summit to move the US to the UK’s ’green list’ and repeal the 212F proclamation for UK travellers to the US immediately, and no later than the 4 July," said Weiss.

He said the UK and US’s "world-leading" vaccination programmes had created an opportunity to open up travel between two "low-risk" countries will protecting public health.

"Vaccinated travellers to and from the UK should be free from testing and quarantine, consistent with the approach taken by the US and the EU, enabling trade, travel and free movement to resume," he added.

"Restrictions on transatlantic travel are costing the UK £23 million each day and, despite one of the highest vaccination rates globally, the UK is now falling behind the EU’s reopening. For global Britain to be seen as the best place to do business, visit and invest, the UK government must act immediately to safely reopen the skies.”

Business Travel Association chief executive Clive Wratten said that although the agreement was a "step in the right direction", travel did not need another taskforce.

"This is the latest in a long line of travel taskforces which so far have only wreaked further devastation on our industry," said Wratten. "Jobs won’t be saved, nor livelihoods protected, until we are given a certainty on dates for the resumption of international travel.

"It is wider than our industry. In the first week of June, UK GDP has lost £630 million due to the lack of transatlantic business travel."

Wratten added: "The charter needs to deliver international protocols that are straightforward and easy to implement across the globe. This can only be done if the travel industry on both sides of the Atlantic is consulted and involved from the outset.

"Until travel can return to 50% of pre-pandemic levels, the UK government must provide targeted financial support to the travel sector which remains in lockdown whilst the country opens-up."

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, the trade body for UK registered airlines, added: "It’s positive news, but time is really ticking and every day we don’t have an air bridge with the US costs us £32 million in lost economic activity.

"It’s our most important trading and tourism link by far and we would urge a redoubling of efforts on both sides of the Atlantic to get an agreement in place."