Britain is set to remove Portugal from its quarantine-free travel list and no new countries will be added, the BBC reported, essentially shutting down the UK's leisure travel market once again in a hammer blow for airlines.

Britain relaunched travel on May 17 following more than four months of lockdown, with Portugal the only big beach destination. Portugal has proved to be a lifeline for airlines and travel companies over the last three weeks, and its removal will deepen the crisis for a travel industry that had looked to June for a recovery to start.

Shares in airlines EasyJet and British Airways and travel companies TUI and Jet2 fell on fears that Europe would lose another peak travel season, when millions of Britons usually head to southern Europe in July and August.

Read the full story at Reuters here.