Brits craving for a foreign getaway are being warned it might not happen until at least the autumn due to the coronavirus variants.
Scientist Professor Neil Ferguson said it may take several months until life may somewhere resemble 'normal' so people can enjoy a holiday abroad.
He said that new variants of the virus pose a threat to the UK especially the South African strain that is behind around 10 per cent of cases in Europe.
The scientist, who has been nicknamed Prof Lockdown, warned if the variant was allowed to run rampant in the UK it could disturb the nation's vaccination programme.
As of Wednesday 28,653,523 Brits have received their first dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech orOxford/AstraZeneca jab and 2,532,839 have been given their second jab.
However fears that the AstraZeneca jab could be linked to blood clots has stalled vaccination programmes in the Europe.
But both regulators in the UK and Europe said the jab is "safe and effective" but the slump in vaccinations means Europe is now falling behind other nations.
The roll out of the AstraZeneca jab is currently stalled in Austria, Bulgaria, Congo, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and Venezuela.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that Europe has witnessed an increase in cases and UK is "very wary" of the third wave sweeping across the continent.
It was also reported on Wednesday that Covid variants could be sneaking into the UK from France as 68 per cent of arrivals are exempt from quarantine.
In some regions of France, up to 40 per cent of new cases are the Brazil and South Africa variants of coronavirus that are more resistant to vaccines.
But Prof Ferguson said the UK's plans for emerging from lockdown shouldn't be affected by the increase in cases in Europe.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast he said: "Depending what happens in other areas of the world, travel may be one of the later things to be relaxed.
"But I think we... whilst not everything will be back to normal by the summer, certainly by the autumn, it will feel a lot more normal."
Mr Johnson is said to be facing pressure from two of his top advisers - Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van-Tam - to impose tougher border controls in a bid to stop variants from bring brought into the country.
An MP who attended the briefing told the Times: "Anyone on that call would understand that he thinks the 'red list' needs expanding. France was the one that kept coming up but Germany was also mentioned because of increased numbers of variants."
Professor Van-Tam and Professor Whitty, the chief medical officer, have urged the Prime Minister to impose tougher border controls to prevent mutant strains from being imported, the newspaper reported.
