An “air bridge” between the UK and Portugal could be agreed by the end of June, allowing tourists to bypass quarantine restrictions. There have been calls for blanket quarantine plans in the UK to be scrapped to aid the tourism and hospitality sectors, despite concerns from public health experts over how air bridges could operate safely. Confirming that talks with the UK were ongoing, the Portuguese foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “quarantine is an enemy of tourism” and anyone wanting a holiday in Portugal this summer would be “most welcome”. Most people arriving in the UK from Monday will be told to isolate for 14 days in an attempt to prevent coronavirus cases from being introduced from overseas. Further details about the rules will be set out on Wednesday by the home secretary, Priti Patel, who has said avoiding a second wave of infections “will always be our top priority” and insisted the restrictions “are informed by the science, backed by the public and will keep us all safe”. There is widespread concern that the imposition of a 14-day quarantine will cause further damage to the travel and tourism sectors, which have been badly hit by a collapse in demand. On Wednesday the London Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 2,000 businesses in the capital, said a blanket quarantine for all international arrivals sent out a message that the UK is closed for business. In a letter to ministers, its chief executive, Paul Scully, proposed a “risk-based approach” involving country-by-country assessments as well as travel corridors with other nations. He said the government’s roadmap to restarting the economy should “recognise that arrivals from some countries with much lower transmission levels than the UK and low incidence of the disease would not increase our risk, provided they adopted our social distancing protocols on arrival.” Boris Johnson’s official spokesman confirmed on Tuesday that the government was still looking at the prospect of air bridges between the UK and other countries, creating specific exemptions from the quarantine rules. EasyJet, Ryanair and British Airways have announced plans to increase their operations next month, despite the Foreign Office advising against non-essential foreign travel. Public health experts have questioned the logistics of the UK forging travel arrangements with countries that have much lower levels of infection. The junior health minister Edward Argar said he hoped people would be able to go on holiday “at some point this year” but a quarantine policy was necessary to minimise the risk of the virus being “reimported” from other nations. Pressed on Today to name a European country with a higher infection rate than the UK, Argar repeatedly sidestepped the question, saying he did not want to pre-empt Patel’s statement to parliament.