As the half-term break looms, travel to and from the UK is still a battlefield

One shuffle of the rules doesn’t make a perfect summer – a ‘not completely disastrous year’ is probably the best we can hope for, writes Simon Calder

The government is easing restrictions as the half-term getaway begins (PA)

The losers in the latest change to the UK’s travel battlefield are clear: the Covid-19 testing companies who have been meeting the lateral flow and PCR needs of arrivals to Britain for the past year or so.

You may find it difficult to summon up much sympathy for these firms. Their parting gift from the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, was an 18-day run after he deemed that the post-arrival test for fully vaccinated travellers had “outlived its usefulness”. They earned an estimated £60m during that spell from selling mandatory tests that were, officially, pointless.

Logic would suggest that the winners are all the travel firms, who have applauded the removal of one of many barriers to adventure. The closest that the travel industry ever gets to harmony was the chorus of chief executives chanting their support.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, representing travel agents in the Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “It will now become much easier for holidaymakers and business travellers to return to the UK from abroad, and [will also] allow inbound tourists, who contribute so much to the UK’s economy, to plan a return visit.”

Charlie Cornish, CEO of Manchester Airports Group, spoke of “a real sense of excitement for travel as we head into the summer season”.

But one shuffle of the travel rules doesn’t make a perfect summer.

Take Heathrow airport: the busiest hub in the UK, but now sunk far below others in Europe. On the same day that everyone was celebrating opening up, its figures revealed that in January, fewer than half the number of pre-pandemic passengers passed through the airport. That is 42,000 people who cancelled or did not book their trips because of Omicron restrictions in December and January.

Inbound tourism has been traumatised, because until a month ago the UK had the most complex and expensive arrival rules in Europe. VisitBritain has the thankless task of trying to achieve the “blockbuster year” that the culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, has predicted for 2022.

The organisation’s best guess is that we might be back to two-thirds of pre-pandemic arrivals by the end of the year. And with the government deciding last October to bar more than 200 million EU ID-card holders, a “not completely disastrous year” is probably the best we can hope for.

At least people who have made their fortunes selling Covid tests to travellers may spend freely at home and abroad.