The Government has confirmed that fully vaccinated passengers will be able to take a lateral flow test for their day two test – instead of a PCR test – from 24 October, with the tests available to book from 22 October. The change comes in time for the school half term in England.

Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA said:

 “It is welcome that PCR tests will be replaced by lateral flows for fully vaccinated travellers from 24 October– in time for those returning from school half term holidays in England. Costly tests have been a huge barrier to people travelling so we hope this will help make overseas holidays much more accessible. Brits are desperate to catch up on their much-loved and much-missed foreign trips – with 46% of people looking to take a winter holiday. With the relaxed travel restrictions and majority of destinations open for travel, now is the best in a long time to book a overseas holiday. 

“We also encourage the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to adopt the same approach.”

ABTA has lots of advice and information available to help customers plan a foreign trip this winter which can be found at www.abta.com/readysteadytravel 

The process for arriving from a red list country is different – full details can be found in our blog What you need to know about foreign travel from October