All Covid-19 travel restrictions removed across South Yorkshire & the rest of the UK
The changes came into force at 4am today
The Government has now removed the remaining restrictions on international travel for all passengers ahead of the Easter Holidays.
The Transport Secretary announced the plans on Monday (14th March).
As one of the first major economies to remove all its remaining COVID-19 travel restrictions, this is a landmark moment for passengers and the travel and aviation sector.
The changes came into force at 4am today (Friday 18th March).
It means that all COVID-19 travel restrictions have now been lifted, including the Passenger Locator Form (PLF) for arrivals into UK, as well as all tests for passengers who do not qualify as vaccinated. This change therefore removes the need for unvaccinated passengers to take a pre-departure test and a Day 2 post arrival test.
This step reflects the decisions taken by the Government, as set out in the Living with COVID-19 plan, and the success of the UK’s vaccine and booster rollout, with 86% of the population having received a second dose, and 67% of the population with a booster or third dose.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:
“The UK is leading the world in removing all remaining COVID-19 travel restrictions, and today’s announcement is a testament to the hard work everyone in this country has put in place to roll out the vaccine and protect each other.
“I said we wouldn’t keep travel measures in place for any longer than necessary, which we’re delivering on today - providing more welcome news and greater freedom for travellers ahead of the Easter holidays.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the travel sector and partners around the world to keep international travel moving.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said:
“As we learn to live with Covid, we’re taking further steps to open up international travel once again ahead of the Easter holidays.
“We will continue monitoring and tracking potential new variants and keep a reserve of measures which can be rapidly deployed if needed to keep us safe.
“We can remove these final restrictions thanks to the incredible success of our vaccination programme which has seen more than 8 out of 10 adults across the UK boosted."
To ensure the protection of public health the Government will maintain a range of contingency measures in reserve, which, should the need arise, would enable it to take swift and proportionate action to delay any future harmful variants of COVID-19 entering the UK.
In future, the Government’s default approach will be to use the least stringent measures, if appropriate, to minimise the impact on travel as far as possible – given the high personal, economic, and international costs border measures can have – and the contingency measures will only be implemented in extreme circumstances.
Given the current state of the pandemic and a move towards global travel volumes returning to normal, the remaining managed hotel quarantine capacity will be fully stood down from the end of March.
Tim Alderslade, Chief Executive of Airlines UK said:
“Today’s announcement sends a clear message to the world – the UK travel sector is back. With travellers returning to the UK no longer burdened by unnecessary forms and testing requirements, we can now look forward to the return to pre-Covid normality throughout the travel experience. We’re grateful for the timing of the announcement as we prepare to welcome back passengers this Easter and Summer, for which we know there is huge pent-up demand, and for the UK’s leadership in being the first major aviation market to remove all remaining restrictions. The time to return to the skies - to enjoy all that makes aviation and international travel great, for families and businesses - is now.”
Emma Kayne is the owner of 'Kayne Travel' in Wath-Upon-Dearne.
She believes it'll make things a lot easier for staff in the sector:
"It releases a lot of spare time for us to be able to assist customers with booking holidays.
"Over the last few months, we've been up to our necks in admin and paperwork, as well as helping people with Passenger Locator Forms and advising people on foreign office travel advice.
"All of that takes us away from the job we're supposed to be doing, but now we can just focus on helping people pick where they'd like to go instead.
"These changes now mean people have the green light to go and book a holiday. There are still restrictions of course for people entering other countries, but on a day-by-day basis we are seeing restrictions lift all around the world too."