TUI to offer holidaymakers cheap Covid tests

Tour operator Tui is to offer cheap Covid tests for customers travelling to green list countries this summer.

The Anglo-German travel giant will offer four testing packages, each including a certification to travel, with prices starting from £20. Tui is partnering with testing firm Chronomics to provide the service.

Andrew Flintham, managing director of Tui UK and Ireland, said: "We have always believed that cost-effective testing solutions, as well as maximum flexibility, will make travel a possibility this summer and beyond.

"Our research has shown that customers are looking forward to their much-needed holiday overseas, but affordable and easy testing solutions was imperative to make this a reality."

The European Union has announced that it will reopen to holidaymakers with low Covid infection rates, such as the UK, and to anyone who has been fully vaccinated, by the start of June.

In the UK, the government has confirmed it will use a traffic light system to enable overseas travel. From 17 May, countries are expected to be placed on either green, amber and red lists, each with specific testing and quarantine requirements. The government is expected to announce which countries will be placed on the green list this week.

Travellers returning from the lowest-risk countries are not likely to have to quarantine, but will have to pay for tests. Gold standard PCR tests currently cost on average around £120 per person, and tour operators have long argued that the price is prohibitive for many holidaymakers. Travellers are not permitted to use free NHS tests and most source them privately.

As at 1400 GMT , shares in Tui were trading 1% higher in London at 434.7p.