Last checked at 
(Recasts with BBC report on Portugal)
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Britain is set to remove Portugal
from its quarantine-free travel list and no new countries will
be added, the BBC reported, essentially shutting down the UK's
leisure travel market once again in a hammer blow for airlines.
Britain permitted travel on May 17 after over four months of
lockdown, but the limited reopening will be even more
restrictive if Portugal, the only big beach destination which
had been open, is also taken off the safe travel list.
Portugal has been a lifeline for airlines and travel
companies over the last three weeks, and its removal would
deepen the crisis for the travel industry which had looked to
June for a recovery to start.
Airlines like easyJet and British Airways
and travel companies like TUI and Jet2,
already weakened by 15 months of lockdowns, will be severely
financially challenged if there is no reopening this summer.
Shares in easyJet traded down 4.5%, while TUI was down 3%
and Jet2 was down 6% after the BBC reports.
Other popular destinations like Spain, France, Italy and the
United States are on an amber list. Travel to amber and red
countries is not illegal but it is discouraged.
Worries over new more transmissible variants of coronavirus
are now threatening the European peak travel summer season, when
millions of Britons usually head to southern Europe in July and
August.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the travel
industry on Wednesday that protecting the country's vaccine
roll-out was his priority.
"I want you to know we will have no hesitation in moving
countries from the green list to the amber list to the red list
if we have to do so. The priority is to continue the vaccine
rollout, to protect the people of this country," he told
reporters.
(Reporting by William James and Sarah Young, Editing by Paul
Sandle and Kate Holton)
