Heathrow, formerly the busiest airport in Europe, lost £348m during the first six months of 2021. Passenger numbers are expected to be even lower overall this year than they were in 2020.

Passenger traffic was around one-10th of the comparable spell in 2019. During the course of this year, the airport expects to handle 21.5 million passengers. This represents a 73 per cent decline compared with 2019, and representing a 3 per cent fall on last year – when January and February traffic levels performed well.

Heathrow’s prediction assumes “the expected gradual addition of countries to the UK government’s ‘green list’ over the balance of the year”.

The airport said the UK government’s decision not to recognise foreign-administered vaccines for the purposes of avoiding quarantine was partly responsible for Heathrow slipping further behind European rivals.

The next traffic light reshuffle is due next week, likely on Wednesday or Thursday.

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The government’s refusal to allow passengers vaccinated against Covid abroad to avoid self-isolation on arrival is nonsensical, the chief executive of Heathrow has said.

At present travellers fully jabbed by the NHS need not quarantine on arrival in the UK from more than 150 “amber list” countries. But all other passengers from those nations must self-isolate, regardless of their vaccination status.

As a result, prospective visitors are switching away from United Kingdom to countries that recognise overseas jabs.

John Holland-Kaye told The Independent: “We are throwing away the Covid vaccination benefit we have had. Why have this restriction against people who have been doubly vaccinated coming here? It makes no sense.

“There has to come a point where we take the benefit of the huge advances we’ve made with vaccinations.

“This is like coming first, and not finishing in the medals. Government is just allowing the UK economy to fall behind, consciously.”

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As the Foreign Office continues to insist that Canada belongs on the no-go list because of its Covid infection rates, a leading tour guide has accused the government of “ruling by fear with these draconian decrees”.

Six weeks ahead of Canada’s planned reopening to fully vaccinated travellers on 7 September, the Foreign Office continues to warn against all but essential travel to the world’s second-largest country.

The reason stated: “The current assessment of Covid-19 risks.”

According to Our World in Data, the UK’s rate of new infections relative to population yesterday was 50 times higher than Canada’s.

Paul Goldstein, who leads tours of Baffin Island in the territory of Nunavut, said: “The government’s risible traffic light system is utterly broken. How can you have a country like Canada which has a rate 50 times less infectious than the UK being a no-go area?

“They have made this ludicrous policy up as they go along. Ruling by fear with these draconian decrees I thought was the domain of the Soviet Union in the 50s.”

On what is usually a day of celebration on the island of Cuba, the nation is instead coping with a relentless rise in coronavirus cases.

At the weekend Cuba’s rate of new infections overtook the UK’s for the first time in six weeks.

“Moncada Day,” 26 July, is the most sacred day in the republic’s calendar. It marks the day in 1953 on which a young Fidel Castro and 125 other young dissidents opposed to the regime of the dictator Batista launched a futile attack on the Moncada army barracks in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Cuba, normally a destination for hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers, is current on the UK’s “red list,” requiring hotel quarantine.

Public transport services are being hit by staff self-isolating.

Workers in the sector are among the vast number of people being pinged by the NHS coronavirus app.

Reduced timetables have been introduced on railways across England in an attempt to improve reliability after a recent spate of last-minute cancellations due to staff shortages.

Passengers are being advised to check their train is running before they leave home.

Thameslink and Southern has cut its weekday timetables on five routes “until further notice”, and warned that further changes could be required.

Avanti West Coast has reduced the frequency of its services between London Euston and Manchester, Birmingham and North Wales to “manage staff shortages and ensure a reliable service”.

A revised timetable with fewer services was also launched by London Northwestern Railway on Saturday.

ScotRail said a “very limited number of trains” are being cancelled due to staff shortages, but it has not amended its timetables.

Transport for London closed the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines over the weekend due to more than 300 members of staff self-isolating.

Reporting by agencies

Finland has become the latest European Union nation to recognise the NHS app as proof of vaccination for travel.

The country in the far northeast of Europe will allow British travellers who can show they have been fully vaccinated to enter with no additional quarantine or testing requirements – even though coronavirus infection rates are currently eight times higher in the UK than in Finland.

“Travellers must have had their complete vaccination course at least 14 days prior to arrival and can present their NHS app Covid Pass or a vaccination status letter on arrival,” Visit Finland said.

Finland is currently on the UK government’s amber list, meaning travellers fully vaccinated by the NHS can return from there without the need to quarantine – but people jabbed elsewhere must self-isolate on arrival.

Singapore is looking to allow quarantine-free travel for those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 from September, when 80 per cent of the city-state’s population should be inoculated, the government said on Monday.

Singapore will establish travel corridors with countries or regions where Covid-19 is under control, and those who are vaccinated may not have to quarantine or may be allowed to isolate at home, finance minister Lawrence Wong said.

The city-state is also set to review whether to loosen curbs in early August, when two-thirds of its population would be fully inoculated.

“The easing will be differentiated and extended to only vaccinated persons, because they are much better protected against the effects of the virus,” Wong said.

“If you want to go out to dine in the restaurant or workout in the gym, you have to be fully vaccinated.”

Reporting by agencies

As Finland became the latest European Union nation to recognise the NHS app as proof of vaccination for travel, British expatriates immunised abroad have expressed frustration with delays by the UK government in recognising foreign jabs.

On 8 July, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that people who had completed a course of NHS vaccinations would not need to self-isolate on return from middle-risk countries from 19 July – covering a large majority of key nations, including the US, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Unlike many other nations, the UK currently refuses to accept proof of vaccination abroad as an alternative to self-isolation. That decision appears to have ended any prospects for a significant inbound tourism for the rest of the summer, as well as preventing foreign citizens from visiting family in the UK.

British expatriates abroad are particularly furious, saying there is no clarity about how and when they may be able return to the UK without quarantining.

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An announcement on UK nationals who’ve been fully vaccinated abroad being able to enter the country quarantine-free is expected soon.

The review is “expected to report by the end of the week”.

Although the government has not confirmed what the update will be, it’s widely expected that double-jabbed expats will be able to forgo self-isolation rules from amber countries, even if they have not been vaccinated in the UK.