Britain is looking at greater testing of all people who have arrived from abroad while they are self-isolating to defend against new variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, a minister said.

Airlines have been brought to their knees by the pandemic, with travel restrictions forcing once fast-growing brands like Norwegian to fight for survival while established names like British Airways have raised cash and laid off thousands of staff.

“We are constantly looking at refining our approach to the border simply because there is a risk from new variants coming from other countries around the world,” Environment Secretary George Eustice told Times Radio.

“Until we have fully rolled out the vaccine and identified a way to be able to update the vaccine to meet new challenges we do have to exercise some caution about international travel,” he said.