Boris Johnson has pledged to make testing requirements for returning holidaymakers “as affordable as possible”.

The Prime Minister’s promise follows concerns that many people across the UK will be priced out of foreign travel as plans for a new system were unveiled on Monday.

The plans would require travellers arriving in the UK from low-risk countries to take pre-departure and post-arrival coronavirus tests.

Travellers returning from countries rated “green” will not be required to self-isolate, although pre-departure and post-arrival tests will still be needed.

Aviation leaders, including easyjet boss Johan Lundgren, have suggested such plans would be unnecessary.

Mr Lundgren told BBC Breakfast: “It should not be needed to put any more complexities and cost in order to travel to and from those destinations.”

He said PCR tests are “way over and above what the cost is of an average easyJet fare”.

“You wouldn’t open up international travel for everyone, you would open up international travel for people who can afford it,” he added.

He went on: “I don’t think that is fair, I don’t think it’s right, and I don’t think it is necessarily established from a medical and scientific point of view that is the right thing to do.

“If they choose, however, to go down that route to have the tests in place, it should be the same type of testing, the lateral flow testing, which is much cheaper, more accessible, that is being used to open up the domestic sector as an example.”

He called for lateral flow tests to be accepted – rather than more expensive alternatives – if the policy is implemented.

In response, Mr Johnson told reporters: “I do think we want to make things as easy as we possibly can.

“The boss of easyJet is right to focus on this issue. We’re going to see what we can do to make things as flexible and as affordable as possible.”

A Downing Street paper published on Monday stated that it is not known whether foreign leisure travel will be permitted from May 17, which is the earliest date it could resume for people in England under the Prime Minister’s road map for easing restrictions.

The Prime Minister said: “I do want to see international travel start up again. We have to be realistic. A lot of the destinations that we want to go to at the moment are suffering a new wave of the illness, of Covid, as we know.

“We can’t do it immediately, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve given up on May 17.

“We will be saying as much as we can, as soon as we can, about international travel.

“I know how impatient people are to book their holidays if they possibly can but I think we just have to be prudent at this stage.”