The transport secretary has said that customers making forward travel bookings are “clearly taking a chance” based on uncertainty over future travel restrictions.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Grant Shapps backed the view of health secretary Matt Hancock, who on Tuesday said it was “likely” that the summer season would in effect be cancelled due to restrictions including FCO advice against all but essential overseas travel and the introduction of a quarantine period for international arrivals.
Shapps said: “No one wants to ruin people’s holidays but you have to accept the situation we are in at this time. The FCO advises against all travel abroad so right now you can’t book those things.”
He added: “Matt Hancock was pointing out the obvious which is, right now, foreign office advice is you can’t travel.”
When pressed on whether customers should or shouldn’t book a holiday, he said: “Right now you can’t travel abroad. If you are booking at this time you are clearly by its very nature taking a chance on where the direction of this virus goes and therefore where the travel advice is in the future, so that is not something that people would want to take lightly of course.”
Shapps was also asked about operators’ and airlines’ hopes of resuming some services for the summer season, and said: “People will have to take a view on where we will be at some point in the future.”