The unprecedented challenge caused by this crisis, with many countries imposing travel restrictions and closing borders, and airlines cancelling their flight programmes, has left thousands of UK nationals stuck abroad. 
 
This week, the Foreign Secretary announced a new partnership with airlines to fly home UK nationals from abroad.
 
ABTA has been working with Members, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Department for Transport (DfT) to understand where these travellers are located and the challenges they are facing.  
 
We have been pressing Government to support efforts to bring home UK nationals in successive letters to the Foreign Secretary and welcome this announcement, which can be accessed via this link New Government partnership with airlines to fly back more tourists stranded abroad
 
ABTA and the whole industry though continue to wait for the Government to announce its stance on the temporary changes to the Package Travel Regulations that we first requested several weeks ago, as well as other measures to support businesses and ensure consumer protections are preserved. 
 
We are determined that the Government recognise the seriousness of the situation that travel businesses are facing and we are employing maximum pressure through our network of Government contacts as well as publicly via the media. This week, most national media have run stories highlighting the pressures the industry is under and ABTA’s asks.
 
Please continue to do whatever you can to support us by sharing your feedback, answering our surveys, engaging with your MPs and telling your story about how you are being impacted. We will be sharing more information about what you can do to keep the pressure up in the coming days.
 
In the meantime we are appealing for customers to be patient with travel businesses, who are doing what they can to support customers.