Scramble for 'amber list' breaks: EasyJet sees 400% rise in bookings

Quarantine-free holidays from Freedom Day today sparked a rush on bookings with easyJet seeing a 400 per cent rise in sales and Ryanair launching £4.99 flights to amber list destinations - but there is growing anxiety about more horrendous queues at passport control and plans to test children as young as five.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has even warned holidaymakers to expect border chaos as he announced that millions of fully vaccinated Britons will not have to self-isolate after many trips abroad from July 19. 

And after the news that opens up 140 destinations currently on the amber list, Britons with two jabs got booking their breaks abroad. 

EasyJet said flight bookings to Alicante and Malaga in Spain, Faro in Portugal, Nice in France and Corfu in Greece exploded by 400 per cent compared to a week ago, with an extra 145,000 extra seats put online, and package holiday sales were up 440 per cent. Ryanair are selling tickets for £4.99 to dozens of European destinations. 

The change will allow Britons to head to France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Cyprus but some EU countries are still restricting entry, including Italy, which still demands Britons self-isolate for five days on arrival. The United States is on the amber list but still bans British tourists.

And sources have warned that the extra checks could initially result in queues at borders of up to six hours. A Whitehall source said Border Force is 'nowhere near ready' to cope with the changes. The source predicted that the agency was unlikely to have upgraded its system until next month, potentially leading to weeks of chaos at the border. 

'You could easily be looking at queues of six hours to start with,' the source said, adding: 'The Border Force is nowhere near ready. What no-one knows is how much extra traffic there will be as a result of the change.'

Grant Shapps also faces a backlash over mandatory PCR tests for children as young as five when they return from holidays. All  adult travellers will still have to take two tests - one pre-return within three days of travel to England and another post-arrival by day two. Children aged 11 to 17 will also need to take the pre-return and post-arrival tests.

But controversially children aged 5 to 10 will need to take the post-arrival test by day two. The level of testing means it could easily add £400 to the cost of a holiday for a family of four.

Molly Kingsley, co-founder of parents' group Us for Them told the Telegraph: 'It is very unclear why we would be doing this now at a time when we know the vaccines have broken the link between infections and hospitalisations.

'Many parents would feel uneasy about normalising testing for children as young as this. It sends a very negative message to our children that they are disease vectors. Any holiday with a family is expensive enough as it is. I would not put a five or eight-year-old through this to go away'.

Newof the great getaway came as it also emerged:

Yesterday's announcement means quarantine-free holidays to major European destinations such as Greece, Spain and Portugal can get under way for the first time since last year. For the double-jabbed, it also effectively turns 147 destinations currently on the amber list into green-list destinations.

Currently, Britons returning from amber-list countries have to self-isolate at home for up to ten days after their return.

MPs and tourism leaders hailed the announcement as 'a shot in the arm' for the beleaguered travel sector and UK economy. But they also warned that the cost of tests remains a 'barrier' to foreign travel for many families as they urged ministers to drive down prices further.

Announcing the move in the Commons, Mr Shapps warned that the extra checks which come with the overhaul could see huge queues at both foreign and UK borders.   

Earlier this year queues of up to seven hours were seen at Heathrow Airport despite passenger numbers being around 15 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

There was also confusion last night about whether the Foreign Office will fully align its travel advice to the new amber rules.

It currently advises against non-essential travel to most amber destinations, invalidating most insurance policies and putting people off travel. Last night the Foreign Office dropped its advice against non-essential travel to 23 destinations – including France, Greece, the Greek islands, Spain and the US.

But it was unclear if it would be changed for the more than 100 other amber destinations.

Travel firm Skyscanner said 30 minutes after the announcement, the agency saw a 53% increase in traffic from the UK compared to the same time on Wednesday.

Martin Nolan, from the company, said: 'It's clear that people are aching to be able to travel again within the guidelines, as evidenced by the immediate uptick in searches and bookings we've witnessed as destinations have been added to the green list.

'This is a huge moment for the UK travel industry, who have been waiting for measures that will truly help to kickstart travel in a safe, smart and sustainable way.

'This move will reunite families and allow people to finally plan travel to their favourite destinations around the world, many of which will be delighted to finally be able to welcome UK travellers for the first time in a year.'

Thomas Cook said web traffic doubled in the moments after the announcement, and has only grown since.

A spokesperson said: 'Searches for Greece have tripled in volume and will be the biggest winner from families booking last-minute summer holidays.

'(Before Thursday) we have been selling very few holidays to amber countries and so with Greece, mainland Spain and Canaries all now available to people who've been double jabbed we'd expect a flood of bookings over the weekend.'

In the Commons, former prime minister Theresa May hailed the easing of restrictions for the double-jabbed as 'the first step in opening up Britain for business'.

But she called on Mr Shapps to broker a deal with fellow ministers to boost border resources to avoid 'inordinately long queues'.

Responding, Mr Shapps said: 'Quite a lot of the check-in would be done before you board the aircraft, or what could also be a train or boat, from the location you're coming back from. And so the queues at check-in, whilst you're abroad, may in fact be the place where those problems most exist.

'I know that many of the airlines are developing systems to further automate that check-in, but they will be doing quite a complicated job.' Asked by Tory MP Sir Roger Gale what would be done to ensure the UK-French Channel border runs smoothly, Mr Shapps said: 'These additional checks are likely to cause delays, potentially on both sides of the Channel this summer, and that people will want to prepare and plan their journeys with supplies and also ensure that they have picked the best time of day to travel in order to avoid it.'

Tory MP Huw Merriman said the revamped amber rules were 'a shot in the arm' for the double-vaccinated and the travel industry, but tackled Mr Shapps over the cost of testing.

Mr Merriman urged ministers to consider allowing travellers to use cheaper, rapid tests upon arrival in England rather than the more costly 'gold standard' PCR swabs.

But Mr Shapps said the 'scientific evidence' showed PCR tests were needed because they can be used to detect variants of concern. He said 'there are quite a number of tests now for much lower prices' and cited some on the government-approved list 'as inexpensive as a tenner'.

But these are for swabs which are self-administered at sites that people often have to travel

read more from dailymail.....