Quarantine measures set to cost package operators up to £5 billion

That was the stark assessment of Rajeev Shaunak, head of travel and tourism at accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson, who said the move would "paralyse" the travel industry at its typically most busy and profitable time.

Shaunak said the plans, announced on Sunday (10 May) by prime minister Boris Johnson, to make all passengers arriving into the UK subject to a 14-day quarantine "strikes down any prospect of an early recovery for the travel or aviation industries".

"For business and leisure travel, self-isolation for a period at least as long as a holiday itself, and in many cases twice as long, is a disaster," said Shaunak, who stressed that by omitting any further reference to reviewing the Foreign Office’s existing advisory against all non-essential travel worldwide, the government’s "stay home" message had become one of "don’t leave the country".