The government will make more announcements on international travel next week and is working on a package of measures for the airline sector, the transport secretary has said.
Grant Shapps said the announcements on travel would come following a review on Monday next week.
He told Sky News: “I’ll be making more announcements, there’s actually a review date next Monday, the 27th. I will be talking more about the way forward on things like international travel corridors then. But now, each week actually, we are reviewing and, where required, updating the list of countries it’s safe to travel to on a weekly basis each Friday.”
Shapps was asked if Air Passenger Duty could be lowered to help the airline industry. He said only that it was the chancellor who makes decisions on taxation, but added: "We are working on a whole range of measures with the aviation sector."
He continued: "But I can say I have been working very closely with the aviation sector, there have been billions of pounds in various different ways from Bank of England loans through to the CCFF scheme to the furlough scheme...and there are more things of course coming down the line."
Shapps signalled a cautious approach to liberalising travel. “The world in the last week has seen record numbers of new coronavirus cases so whilst I know coronavirus has been fading a little bit in UK news, globally it’s still a massive issue and I’m afraid that doesn’t mean we can go straight back to where we were with aviation and other sectors quite yet.”