Covid restrictions five years on: How the pandemic brought the world's leading travel industry to its knees

Independent

17-03-2025

On 17 March 2020, the foreign secretary at the time, Dominic Raab, told British travellers to stay at home. 'I approved the FCO's first-ever global travel advisory which advised against all but essential international travel,' he later told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
As what was then known as the 'Wuhan coronavirus' spread around the world, the effect was to suspend all outbound package holidays, and to invalidate standard travel insurance policies for independent travellers.
The announcement was in response to the clattering shut of frontiers around the world; the UK remained open. But soon ministers began imposing a frequently changing tangle of travel restrictions that scuppered tens of millions of travel plans and wrecked the finances of airlines, cruise lines, train operators and holiday firms.
During the following two years, hundreds of changes were made. They included:
Sudden imposition of self-isolation for returning holidaymakers.
A 19-week total ban on holidays abroad.
The 'amber-plus' status inexplicably applied to France at the height of summer 2021.
Families were separated and what had been the world's leading travel industry was brought to its knees.
As Baroness Hallett, chair of the Covid inquiry, said: 'The restrictions on travel, leisure and hospitality not only had a significant economic impact but also disrupted the way people engaged with society, family and friends.'
Yet many of the hastily imposed rules, MPs later concluded, were pointless. The Transport Select Committee said travel restrictions were 'disproportionate to the risks to public health' and caused severe damage to the UK's aviation industry.
The government's frequently changing Covid-19 rules 'were not based on scientific consensus' – and caused 'a severe financial shock to the sector', without significant health benefits.
Dame Meg Hillier, then-chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: 'The approach to border controls and quarantine caused huge confusion and disruption.
'We can be clear on one thing – the cost to the taxpayer in subsidising expensive quarantine hotels, and more millions of taxpayers' money blown on measures with no apparent plan or reasoning and precious few checks or proof that it was working to protect public health.'
This is how the pandemic unfolded.
17 March 2020
In Cairo, having just flown out of Yemen, I listen as the UK's then-foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, issues a warning against all travel abroad any further than Ireland.
'UK travellers abroad now face widespread international border restrictions and lockdowns in various countries,' he tells parliament.
'The speed and range of those measures across other countries is unprecedented. So I have taken the decision to advise British nationals against all non-essential international travel.'
23 March 2020
British travellers around the world are urged to return home. My flight from Cairo costs around £700.
22 May 2020
UK frontiers had remained open in line with World Health Organisation recommendations that international travel bans are largely futile. But as other nations opened up, the government decided to bring in mandatory quarantine for almost all arrivals to the UK from 10 June 2020.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, announced inbound travellers must spend two weeks at home, self-isolating. She said: 'Now we are past the peak of this virus, we must take steps to guard against imported cases, triggering a resurgence of this deadly disease.'
The government spends £114m attempting to enforce the rules, but inspectors are "unable to confirm compliance in around one-third of visits' according to the Public Accounts Committee.
Seven thousand people were reported to the police – but the committee says: 'The Home Office told us it did not know what happened to these cases once they had been passed to the police.'
11 June 2020
UK lockdown mark 1 ends and easyJet resumes flights, Tina Milton, one of the cabin crew aboard flight 883 from Gatwick to Glasgow, says: 'It's the start of the future.'
The government issues travel advice for airline passengers, who are urged to check in all baggage including hand luggage, and remain seated as much as possible during the flight.
Four days later, face masks become mandatory on public transport in England.
10 July 2020
'Travel corridors' first open for British travellers, allowing quarantine-free trips to France, Italy, Spain and Turkey, but not to Portugal or Croatia.
'I hope this announcement provides good news to the many of us who want to enjoy a holiday abroad this year,' says Grant Shapps, the-then transport secretary.
25 July 2020
At six hours' notice, the government says: 'People returning to the UK from Spain from midnight tonight will need to self-isolate for two weeks, with the country removed from the travel corridors list.'
After just 15 days, the most popular destination for British holidaymakers is put back on the quarantine list.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps, who has just arrived for a holiday in Spain, is among the travellers affected.
'The government is urging employers to be understanding of those returning from Spain who now will need to self-isolate,' he said.
15 August 2020
France, the Netherlands and Malta are removed from the 'travel corridors' list – with travellers returning from any of them now requiring two weeks of self-isolation.
Stena Line accelerates its overnight ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich in order to arrive before the 4am deadline, so its passengers won't have to quarantine.
22 August 2020
Austria and Croatia join the mandatory self-isolation list. For the first time Portugal is given quarantine-free status, which lasts for just three weeks.
9 September 2020
Due to Covid cases, the Portuguese mainland is put in the same risk category as central Kabul and parts of Somalia, with the Foreign Office saying: '[We] advise against all but essential travel to mainland Portugal.'
1 October 2020
Poland and Turkey are next to join the quarantine list. Italy follows on 15 October.
22 October 2020
The Canary Islands briefly opened up for travel. However, quarantine is reimposed on arrivals in the UK from the isles on 12 December.
7 November 2020
The UK's first outright travel ban is announced: 'Visitors arriving into the UK from Denmark will not be permitted entry,' says the government, after concerns about an outbreak of a Covid-19 variant are traced to mink. Anyone who has been in Denmark in the last 14 days is urged to self-isolate, along with their whole household.
24 November 2020
The first Global Travel Taskforce report is published. One recommendation – for halving the length of quarantine if travellers take a 'test to release' – is introduced from 15 December. Most of the other recommendations are not followed up, including
'The development of a global framework for the validation of tests and vaccination record'
'The feasibility of short stay exemptions for businesses and tour groups'
'Measures to facilitate safe transit'
24 December 2020
A ban on arrivals from South Africa begins, with exemption for people with permanent residency in the UK – who 'are required to self-isolate for 10 days along with their household'.
6 January 2021
In the single most punitive policy of the pandemic, all international leisure travel from the UK is banned until 17 May. Anyone at an airport, seaport or international railway station seeking to leave the UK without a reason for exemption faces a fine.
15 January 2021
'Entry to the UK banned for passengers arriving from destinations across South (and Central) America, Portugal, Panama and Cape Verde.' This is the first 'red list', as we came to know it.
A flight ban is imposed on all red list countries, leading to the unintended consequence that people stranded there are forced to take indirect routes, involving more stops with a higher risk of contagion, and making it harder to detect people arriving from high-risk locations.
18 January 2021
After months of insisting that testing for the purposes of travel has no value, mandatory pre-departure tests are introduced for arrivals to the UK.
27 January 2021
'There are still too many people coming in and out of our country each day,' says Priti Patel.
The government says: 'There will be an increased police presence at ports and airports, fining those in breach of the stay at home regulations - anyone without valid reason for travel will be directed to return home and may face a fine.'
31 January 2021
Government begins advertising campaign warning: 'Going on holiday is illegal.'
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, later says: 'The government embarked on a preposterous advertising campaign, spending taxpayers' money promoting going on holiday as illegal – criminalising the outbound travel sector and leaving it with no ability to trade.'
2 February 2021
Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announces plans for 'a managed quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland, regardless of which country they have come from'. In other words: arrivals from everywhere (apart from Ireland) must go into hotel quarantine.
Predictably, Scottish travellers switch to English entry points, or route themselves via Ireland.
10 February 2021
Grant Shapps says jail terms of up to 10 years for people who lie on their passenger locator form are appropriate.
15 February 2021
Hotel quarantine begins for red list arrivals. 'Anyone travelling to the UK from a country on the UK's travel ban list will be required to quarantine in a government-approved facility for a period of 10 days,' say ministers.
'To ensure compliance, fines will be issued and will range from £5,000 rising to £10,000 for arrivals who fail to quarantine in a designated hotel.
The Public Accounts Committee later says that taxpayers ended up subsidising hotel quarantine to the tune of £329m – representing over £1,500 for each arrival who spend two weeks in isolation.
17 May 2021
International leisure travel is permitted once again. The UK's 'traffic light system' is introduced, with:
Hotel quarantine for arrivals from red list countries
Self-isolation at home for amber list arrivals
Testing but no quarantine for those arriving from green list countries
The only feasible green list destinations for British travellers initially are Portugal, Iceland and Gibraltar.
3 June 2021
Grant Shapps announces Portugal is to be moved to the amber list, meaning mandatory quarantine due to 'a mutation of the Delta variant'.
I tweet: 'The day the travel industry died?'
Air fares soar as travellers rush to beat the quarantine deadline from Portugal.
8 July 2021
Government announces that from 19 July, fully vaccinated arrivals from amber list countries can avoid self-isolation. They must continue with a pre-departure test and a post-arrival PCR. However, only those with jabs administered in the UK are considered vaccinated; everyone who received a vaccine elsewhere must continue to quarantine.
16 July 2021
Ahead of the rules being eased, France is moved to a new category, swiftly dubbed 'amber plus' – effectively a travel ban at the start of the school summer holidays in England and Wales.
France's then Europe minister, Clément Beaune, tweets: 'The UK's quarantine measures for France are excessive and incomprehensible in health terms.'
Dominic Raab explains the extra restrictions were imposed because of 'the prevalence of the so-called Beta variant, in particular in the Réunion bit of France'.
The fact that this island is 5,800 miles away from Paris was deemed irrelevant.
Yet Réunion island itself remains on the regular amber list. Anyone fully vaccinated seeking to travel from there to the UK without quarantine need only avoid mainland France.
The restriction remains in place for three weeks, wrecking plans for hundreds of thousands of travellers.
Danny Callaghan, chief executive of the Latin American Travel Association, now says this episode 'really highlighted how little the government understood what was happening in the world'.
'That decision did cause a lot of despair in the industry as we realised what were were up against.'
1 August 2021
As peak season begins, fully vaccinated arrivals to the UK from 'green list' countries must take a test before departure to the UK and an expensive PCR test after arrival. No other European country makes such demands. They see no particular value in multiple tests for low-risk arrivals from low-risk nations.
31 August 2021
After Montenegro is moved to the red list, airlines scramble to organise an airlift back to the UK before hotel quarantine becomes mandatory. But easyJet suffers a technical problem. A replacement aircraft is sent out, but only to Dubrovnik – across the border in Croatia.
Dozens of non-UK passengers are excluded from the flight because they are not allowed to cross the frontier.
The easyJet plane carrying British travellers touches down at Gatwick at 3.58am – two minutes ahead of the 4am deadline.
16 September 2021
As infection rates soar in Britain, I write: 'The UK is in the odd and counter-intuitive position of having both the highest Covid infection rates of any major European country and also the most draconian restrictions on arrivals from abroad.'
4 October 2021
Green and amber categories are scrapped, with fully vaccinated arrivals requiring only a post-arrival PCR test. The red list remains. 'We are accelerating towards a future where travel continues to reopen safely and remains open for good,' says Grant Shapps.
30 November 2021
Mandatory self-isolation for all arrivals is back – with the post-arrival lateral flow test replaced by a PCR. Fully vaccinated travellers can leave quarantine when they get a negative result.
'Close contacts of anyone who has tested positive for the Omicron variant are required to isolate for 10 days regardless of whether they have been vaccinated,' says the government.
1 December 2021
Spain bans unvaccinated arrivals from the UK. The rule continues in force even for under-16s for 10 weeks, blighting Christmas, New Year and half-term holidays for many families.
15 December 2021
The UK red list is abolished – but hotel quarantine continues. 'I've had nine walk out on me so far,' a security office at the Gatwick Sofitel tells me. 'They face a £10,000 fine but the police aren't interested.'
16 December 2021
Proving that the UK government does not have a monopoly on nonsensical decisions, France imposes a travel ban on British passengers. It lasts for three weeks, wiping out Christmas and New Year holidays and family reunions for many.
24 January 2022
Grant Shapps says post-arrival testing for fully vaccinated travellers to the UK has 'outlived its usefulness', but ministers choose to keep it in place for a further 18 days. In the interim, British travellers spend an estimated £60m on tests.
18 March 2022
All coronavirus restrictions for travellers arriving in the UK are lifted.
26 July 2022
The headline for the Public Accounts Committee report reads: 'Huge costs and disruption but government 'doesn't know' whether Covid travel traffic-light system, hotel quarantine or home isolation actually worked.'