Jet2 cancels all flights and holidays until 1 July following government travel announcement

‘We know how disappointed our customers and independent travel agency partners will be following today’s announcement, and we share their concerns and frustrations,’ says tour operator

Going places? Jet2 has grounded flights and holidays until late July (Matt Carter)

Jet2 has announced it will cancel all flights and holidays until 1 July following the government’s latest updates to its traffic light travel lists.

In addition, the tour operator and airline said it would have to push back restarting trips to Turkey until 22 July after the popular holiday destination remained on the Department for Transport’s red list.

There were high hopes that more tourist hotspots might be added to the “green list”, from where inbound travellers face the lightest restrictions when entering the UK, but the 3 June review proved disappointing.

No destinations moved from amber to green, while Portugal, the only mainstream holiday inclusion originally on the green list, was downgraded following a doubling of infections since the last review.

“We know how disappointed our customers and independent travel agency partners will be following today’s announcement, and we share their concerns and frustrations,” said Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.

“The UK Government has repeatedly stated that it is making decisions based on infection and vaccination rates, yet many destinations continue to be left off the green list despite having low infection rates and high vaccination rates.

“When you apply the Government’s own criteria for making decisions about travel, we simply cannot understand why more destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands are not allowed to open to UK holidaymakers.”

The travel company is now calling for “complete openness and transparency” when it comes to the data, so that customers and the industry can understand what is driving the government’s decisions.

Jet2 had originally planned to restart operations at the end of this month, but today’s announcement has resulted in it pushing back the launch date once again.

Customers due to travel to any destination currently on the amber list can amend their booking free of charge if they are due to travel between 1 and 21 July 2021.

Where travellers are affected by any programme changes, Jet2 will automatically cancel their booking with a full refund.