The UK Government has today announced air bridges to 59 countries which will allow travellers to fly to them without the need to quarantine for 14-days on return.
The countries pose what the government calls a “reduced risk” of coronavirus transmission and include some of the most popular holiday destinations such as Spain and Greece in Europe and Jamaica and Seychelles further afield.
Notably absent from the list is the United States of America which is seeing a massive rise in cases of Coronavirus.
The full list quarantine exempt countries
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Aruba
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Bonaire
- Sint Eustatius and Saba
- Croatia
- Curaçao
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominica
- Faroe Islands
- Fiji
- Finland
- France,
- French Polynesia
- Germany, Greece
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macau
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Réunion
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- South Korea
- Spain
- St Barthélemy
- St Kitts and Nevis
- St Lucia
- St Pierre and Miquelon
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turkey
- Vatican City
- Vietnam.
The air bridges have been broadly welcomed by the travel industry, airlines and airports.
Charlie Cornish, Group CEO of Manchester Airports Group, said: “These travel corridors will open up the chance for people to enjoy a well-earned break abroad and directly benefit the hundreds of thousands of people whose jobs depend on air travel for their livelihoods – whether they work in aviation or for the UK’s tourism and hospitality businesses, which can now welcome the first overseas visitors we will have seen for months.
“We have made our airports safe for our passengers and staff, and our airports have already started limited operations to many of these countries. With the quarantine requirement now removed, we look forward to safely welcoming back many more passengers in the coming weeks.
“The Government should continue to take a risk-based approach to quarantine arrangements and, where possible, build more air bridges to key tourism and business destinations with low infection rates. Each one will help protect jobs and preserve billions of pounds worth of economic activity in the UK.”