The new data comes as the boss of one testing firm calls for Day 2 testing for arrivals to be scrapped, a move that would end all testing for travellers heading to the UK.
Elsewhere, there are fresh concerns over the rising price of oil, while anyone booked to see Adele in Las Vegas faces disappointment after she postponed her three-month residency just 24 hours before the first show.
Here are the key headlines concerning travel on Friday 21 January.
Travel tests ‘ineffective’ in stopping Covid spread
Travel tests have virtually no effect in preventing the spread of Covid variants unless restrictions are introduced within a day of the strain first being imported, according to research by Edge Health and Oxera, a consultancy that works with the NHS. Any restrictions only delay the peak of a new variant by between two and eight days, it was found. (Daily Telegraph)
Time to end Day 2 testing says Collinson director
Testing firm Collinson’s global medical director Dr Simon Worrell has called for Day 2 testing for travellers returning to the UK to be scrapped, a move that would effectively end all testing for travel. Worrell said testing was only ever supposed to be a temporary measure and that the UK had since put up sufficient defence against Covid through immunity. (BBC News)
Oil prices at highest level since 2015
Oil prices hit a more than seven-year high this week on bets that demand for crude could outstrip supply later this year. Brent, the international benchmark, rose 1.9% to $88 a barrel, the highest since October 2014 when oil topped $115. (Financial Times)
Charges over Ryanair ‘hijack’
US prosecutors have charged four Belarusian government officials with aircraft piracy for diverting a Ryanair flight last year, allegedly claiming there was a bomb threat in order to arrest an opposition journalist. The charges made in New York recounted how the flight from Athens to Vilnius was diverted to Minsk by air traffic control in Belarus. (The Guardian)
London-bound flight turns around in mask row
An American Airlines flight from Miami to London was forced to turn around after a passenger refused to wear a face mask. The female passenger was not arrested as she did not break local law despite flight crew following the federal mask mandate. (Daily Mirror)
Covid forces Adele to postpone Vegas residency
Adele has cancelled the first shows of her three-month Las Vegas residency, due to start today, following a Covid outbreak among stage crew. Weekend with Adele was due to run at The Colosseum until 16 April, with the show set to become a big attraction for UK visitors. (Sky News)
