Transport Secretary Grant Shapps appearance at Airline 2050 last Monday proved to be as much a damp squib as ABTA the previous week.   (See ABTA 1 – Shapps and quarantine in last week's BTN.)

After a prepared speech his interrogator was the vastly experienced Financial Times International Business Editor, Peggy Hollinger, bursting to get her questions out, and then time limited.  No networking with the cabinet minister either.

On Brexit, Mr Shapps said: “We very much hope to have a deal in place.”

He said he expected the European Union to come forward with an agreement to allow UK – EU flights to continue beyond 31 December, if no deal is completed.

The Transport Secretary has said he hopes the current 14 days of self-isolation required of most arrivals to the UK could be almost halved from the start of December.

He told the virtual conference that he is “very, very, very keen to ensure that people can safely travel.”

Mr Shapps co-chairs the Global Travel Taskforce with the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. He revealed the body is to recommend to the Prime Minister that incoming passengers should be able to take a PCR test, at their expense, a week after arrival.

If it is negative they will be able to leave quarantine. The so-called “test-and-release” scheme is likely to allow passengers to leave quarantine on day eight of their self-isolation.

The Transport Secretary said: “We’ve already worked incredibly fast. We’re talking to vast parts of the testing industry.”

www.gov.uk/dft