It is really disappointing to note that the media is obsessing about the price of PCR tests for travel rather than the justification for requiring them at all. They're allegedly necessary to detect new Covid variants slipping in to the UK, but in order for that to be achieved positive tests must be sequenced. We know that is only happening in around 5% of cases, so the reality is that they are utterly useless for the purpose of detecting new variants. However, what they are really useful for is allowing politicians to pretend to have opened up air travel to and from the UK whilst in reality raising the barrier so high that few can risk / afford to do so. I also suspect that the anti-carbon zealots may have a hand in keeping this nonsense going.
I recently received a promotion from Air Baltic. Short break in Riga with return flights from MAN plus decent hotel £175. I was seriously tempted until I factored in the costs of PCR tests, the time / hassle factor, and particularly that exciting day when you would wander round Riga searching for a Covid testing clinic where English is understood - because my Latvian isn't great. Maybe not! And this thought process is inhibiting travel to so many destinations. One might consider it worthwhile for two weeks in Spain with local testing available in a large hotel complex with no language barrier. But as for the short breaks market - it has been annihilated. Totally impractical.
The time has come for the industry at large to get together and DEMAND a complete end to PCR testing requirements for travel. We could live with lateral flow tests for red list with PCR follow-up for those testing positive. Everything else is pure 'Covid Theatre', and it is decimating the UK travel industry as long as it persists. Only the UK government is persisting with this nonsense, and we know that they have fallen into the grip of green zealots with an alternative agenda, from the PM's wife downwards. As Rahm Emmanuel famously said: "Never let a good crisis go to waste!"