Vaccinated travellers can now enter Britain without taking any coronavirus tests after the government on Friday scrapped one of the final restrictions imposed over the past two years in response to COVID-19.

Visitors, and returning residents, who have had at least two doses of an approved coronavirus vaccine now only need to fill out a passenger locator form before traveling to the UK. Unvaccinated people still have to take tests both before and after arriving but no longer need to self-isolate until they get a negative result.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK “now has one of the most free-flowing borders in the world — sending a clear message that we are open for business.”

Airlines and other travel firms hailed the change as a lifeline after two years of severely constricted travel. Andrew Flintham, managing director of travel group Tui UK, said there was “a huge pent-up demand for international travel,” and people were rushing to book getaways for the February school break and April’s Easter holiday.

Gatwick, London’s second-busiest airport, said that it plans next month to reopen the second of its two terminals, shuttered since June 2020.

British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle urged other countries to follow Britain’s “pragmatic approach.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government lifted most domestic rules last month. Face masks are no longer mandatory in most indoor spaces in England, vaccine passports for gaining entry to nightclubs and large-scale events were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home. Other parts of the UK. – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – have also lifted most restrictions.

Johnson announced last week that he hopes to lift the final restriction –mandatory self-isolation for people who test positive – by the end of February as part of a plan to live long-term with COVID-19. Officials have said the government plans to switch from legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus more like the flu as it becomes endemic in the country.

Britain has seen a drop in both new infections and COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals since the peak of the omicron spike in early January. Officials have credited the government’s booster jab program with preventing the surge in omicron cases from causing serious stress to UK hospitals. In Britain, 84.6% of people 12 and up have had two doses of a vaccine and almost two-thirds have had a third, booster shot.