Cost of flights to Ibiza, Malta and Mallorca sky rocket after being added to UK ...

The price of breaks to the Balearic islands have tripled in price less than 24 hours after the holiday destinations were added to the UK green list. 

Grant Shapps announced last night that Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca - along with Madeira, Grenada, Barbados, and Bermuda - have all been downgraded from amber to green. 

It means holidaymakers will be able to return from these countries without being forced into quarantine for 10 days when arriving back in the UK. 

Within minutes, flight prices to the popular holiday destinations had sky rocketed and again this morning fees have soared even more.  

Those looking to book a trip to Ibiza will now have to pay £240, compared to just £87 yesterday morning, the price of flights to Menorca have almost doubled from £124 to £245 while a holiday to Malta will now set travellers back £186 as opposed to £147.

Mallorca is the anomaly, with flight prices actually down today, at £89, compared to £120.

It comes as furious travel bosses today insisted the government's changes to the green list don't go far enough, and that dozens more countries with low infection rates should have been added.

The Transport Secretary revealed the updated list last night, and also said the Government will allow those who are double-jabbed to holiday in amber list countries without having to quarantine on their return - but this is still weeks away, with the rule not likely to come in until July at the earliest.

But the announcements drew criticism from some airlines, with easyJet saying it 'simply isn't ambitious enough', while Virgin Atlantic chief Shai Weiss also criticised the decision to leave the US on the UK's amber list, saying: 'Today's announcement fails to go far enough.' 

Meanwhile, Sean Doyle, CEO of British Airways, told the BBC: 'We cannot afford another missed summer. There are jobs at stake, Britons separated from family members and we cannot afford to allow the success of our vaccine programme to be wasted.'

It came as others across the beleaguered travel sector voiced similar concerns. The Airport Operators Association chief executive Karen Dee said the Government's 'overly cautious' approach would continue to have 'major financial impacts' on the sector.

'Any extension of the green list is welcome, however small, but we also have to be realistic: this is not yet the meaningful restart the aviation industry needs to be able to recover from the pandemic,' she said.

CBI chief UK policy director Matthew Fell added: 'While welcome, these limited movements on green list countries won't be enough to salvage the summer season for the international travel sector.

'International connectivity extends far beyond tourism and underpins our whole economy. The UK's successful vaccine rollout means we should be in the vanguard of safely restarting international travel.'

Meanwhile, the holiday company On the Beach said it would not be taking new bookings for July and August while so much uncertainty remained about countries on the watchlist.

Chief executive Simon Cooper said: 'Booking a holiday to these destinations is not a guarantee that you won't have to self-isolate when you return home.

'While this uncertainty continues, we will continue to not sell holidays for July and August until we have greater confidence these holidays will go ahead with minimal disruptions.'

It comes as six countries including Tunisia and Haiti will be put on the UK's travel red list - meaning only UK citizens and those with residency status can travel from here and must stay in quarantine hotels for 10 days.

Israel and Jerusalem, which have been on the UK's travel green list since its inception, will be added to the 'green watch list'.

Others in this category - which signals that a country might be moved to the amber list in the near future - include Antigua, the Balearic Islands, Barbados and Grenada.

And in another blow France and Germany launched a joint push to make Britons quarantine on arrival in the EU despite Boris Johnson hailing the 'real opportunity' of opening travel to double-jabbed holidaymakers.   

Mr Shapps said this morning that international travel would not be returning to like before coronavirus but that he hoped the announcement of a green watchlist would give people holiday options.

The Cabinet minister told Sky News: 'It does mean there is a little bit of relief for the travel industry and for people who wish to get away.

'It won't be quite like it was in 2019 and the old days, but we are moving in a positive direction.'

Pressed on whether he would book a holiday to Majorca, which is on the green watchlist, Mr Shapps said: 'I should just explain the green watchlist.

'It means they are on the green list, you can go and it is treated like a green list country, but we are just being completely open with the data that the scientists have given us in saying, there are one or two concerns, it might mean we have to perhaps respond quickly on there, so we've said it is the green watchlist in order that people can see exactly what we're seeing.

'I do have to say whoever is booking to go anywhere this summer at all, travel insurance, making sure your flights are changeable, making sure the accommodation is changeable - all those things are going to be very important in this particular year and I think people will need to weigh up whether that is going to work for them or not.'

Mr Shapps also said today that there are still issues to be worked out when it comes to allowing people who have had both vaccinations to travel to amber list countries without needing to quarantine.

He told LBC radio: 'I thought it was a good idea to let people see what we are seeing, which is that, increasingly, scientific data is showing that if you have had two jabs then you're pretty well protected and much less likely to carry the disease to other people as well, and therefore we might be able to have a situation where people who are jabbed going to an amber country as if they were going to a green country, meaning they would not have to quarantine.

'But there are quite a lot of things we need to sort out before we can do that.

'What would happen with children, for example? The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have yet to opine on whether children should be able to get vaccines or not.

'What happens because not everyone can get a vaccine? How do you treat people who didn't get their vaccine in the UK and therefore don't have evidence of it?

'So there are a lot of things we are working through still and so I'll come back next month and say more.'

Mr Shapps said he will not be making any further announcement before July 19 when domestic coronavirus restrictions are due to be lifted, and that any double-jab holiday exemptions are likely to take a 'phased approach'. 

Meanwhile, shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said the Government should provide a simpler approach to its international travel lists in order to avoid 'drama' this summer.

The Labour MP told BBC Breakfast: 'What the green watchlist doesn't say is whether they are on the watchlist currently because they have high rates of concern but overall is heading in the right direction, or is it that they previously had reasonable levels but is now heading in the wrong direction?

'So what we have been calling for is a more simplified list.

'Either it is not safe to go or it is safe to go, and then have a country-by-country assessment so passengers know, is that country heading in the right direction or the wrong direction, because if you're booking a holiday in two or three weeks' time, you are going to want to know if the country is heading in the right or the wrong direction.'

Mr McMahon said the lack of information about the criteria the Government is using to move countries onto the different lists 'doesn't instill consumer confidence'.

'People need to know that, when they are making that booking, when they are taking that holiday that many have looked forward to, that the holiday will go ahead and without drama - and that's frankly not a lot to ask,' he added.

Professor Adam Finn, who is working from Portugal, where his partner lives, for some of the time, told Sky News that the UK poses more of a risk to some other countries at the moment than the other way round.

'But you're quite right that that can change and the virus has the capacity to evolve further, and we could once again import another virus at some point in time if a lot of us go travelling, so there is always a risk involved in this, until the pandemic is brought under control globally.'

French MEP Veronique Trillet-Lenoir said there should be a 'harmonised' approach to travel rules across the European Union and 'third countries' such as the UK.

'I'm very well aware of the economical issues, but until now both the EU and the UK have prioritised the sanitary aspect of the crisis and that's the way to do it.'

Yesterday it emerged how some Britons jumped the gun and revealed they had been booking flights and stays abroad before the Transport Secretary's announcement.

Hopeful tourists took to social media over the past few days to show their plans for some summer sun, bagging return flight prices as cheap as £21 for Malta and Ibiza and £26 to Mallorca over the next few months.

But within hours of Mr Shapps' announcement prices for flights to the new green list destinations surged by up to 200 per cent.

Jet2's plane from Stansted to Ibiza and back - at 6am on July 3 and 10.20am on July 10 - jumped from £149 to £314.

Ryanair's journey to Malta for the same dates - but at 4.55pm and 7.15am - also increased in cost from £201 to £260.

Meanwhile a Jet2 plane out of the Essex airport to Majorca on those days leaped from £153 to £478 within hours of the announcement.

A trip with the same firm to nearby Menorca rose from  £132 to £312.

The welcome announcement of the new green list, which comes into effect from June 30, was made after both Scotland and Northern Ireland jumped the gun and revealed the additions before Mr Shapps.

Almost an hour after the Northern Ireland Assembly had revealed the updated green list, the Transport Secretary said in a Twitter post: 'We're adding Malta to the Government green list.

'We're also adding Madeira, the Balearic Islands, several UK Overseas Territories and Caribbean Islands (including Barbados) to the green list and green watchlist. Israel and Jerusalem are also added to the green watchlist.'

He added: 'Thanks to our successful vaccination programme, our intention is that later in the summer UK residents who are fully vaccinated will not have to isolate when travelling from amber list countries.'

Mr Shapps said more details about the double-vaccination holiday scheme will be unveiled by the government next month.

Six countries including Tunisia and Haiti will be put on the UK's travel red list - meaning only UK citizens and those with residency status can travel from here and must stay in quarantine hotels for 10 days.

Israel and Jerusalem, which have been on the UK's travel green list since its inception, will be added to the green watch list - which signals that a country might be moved to the amber list in the near future.

The travel list changes are all due to come into place from June 30, at 4am.

Both Northern Ireland and Scotland had earlier jumped the gun on the announcement, revealing the 16 countries they were set to allow on their travel green list.

Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport Michael Matheson said: From the outset we have said caution is required regarding international travel and people should think very carefully about travelling abroad as situations can suddenly change.

'We continue to work closely

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