"To allow our customers time to get vaccinated, we are moving the restart date for our travel businesses to May", Saga's spokesman said in a statement.

The company last year said it expected its tour operations business to restart in April 2021.

The Financial Times reported https://on.ft.com/3iuEAsJ earlier in the day that the travel company's holidaymakers must be vaccinated at least 14 days before travelling and take a pre-departure COVID-19 test.

Saga has invested in on-board air conditioning, doubled its medical teams and cut capacity on board to 800 from 999 passengers to draw customers back to its cruises, the report said.

(Reporting by Samantha Machado in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Ramakrishnan M.)