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* British PM Johnson to set out plans at 1700 local time
* International travel will not start before May 17
* Airlines, hotels hope for a relaunch
(Recasts lead, adds travel quotes)
By Kate Holton
LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson will unveil a traffic light system to relaunch
international travel on Monday, offering hope for airlines and
European holiday resorts struggling in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson has already announced a staggered plan to ease
coronavirus restrictions in the months ahead. He now wants to
enable international travel to resume without setting back
efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Britain.
At a 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) news conference, he will outline a
system ranking countries as red, amber or green, based on their
levels of infection and vaccination, and on the presence of
coronavirus variants.
Noel Josephides, chairman of travel group Sunvil, said the
industry ideally needed a month to prepare. He hoped any testing
requirements could involve cheaper and rapid tests if customers
were going to be persuaded to book.
"The tour operating and travel agency business cannot go
through another summer of earning nothing. No one's earned
anything for over a year now," he told Reuters.
Britons are among the highest spending tourists in Europe.
Josephides said airlines and hotels were waiting to decide
whether they would resume operations.
British media suggested countries on the green list,
requiring only testing before and after travel, could include
Portugal, Malta, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United
States.
Under the plan, international travel would not resume until
May 17 at the earliest. Countries on the amber list would
require self-isolation. Those on the red list would require
quarantine.
Airlines such as easyJet, Ryanair and
British Airways, plus holiday groups such as TUI
, hope to avoid a second lost summer but COVID-19
cases have risen in continental Europe.
Johnson is also widely expected to confirm plans to allow
all retail, outdoor hospitality and hairdressers to open in
England on April 12, with trials of "vaccine passports" taking
place to help relaunch mass events.
The government is offering everyone in England two rapid
tests a week, to break chains of transmission and spot
asymptomatic cases.
"As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine
programme and with our roadmap to cautiously easing restrictions
underway, regular rapid testing is even more important to make
sure those efforts are not wasted," Johnson said in a statement.
Britain has given AstraZeneca and Pfizer
shots to more than half the adult population, and the reopening
of schools in March has so far caused no spike in cases.
(Editing by Jan Harvey, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Timothy
Heritage)
