Holidaymakers at East Midlands Airport have spoken of their relief and excitement as they jet off following the latest travel announcement.
Just days after the government’s latest travel update, at Wednesday lunchtime (September 22) excited travellers trickled into a quiet departure lounge.
Locations flickered across the screens, with Rhodes, Malaga, Alicante and Kos amongst the sunny destinations.
The rule changes, which were broadly welcomed by EMA’s boss, will not take effect until next month, however the changes helped give some holidaymakers added assurance.
Lilly Dixon, an 18-year-old student from Boston set to jet off to Benidorm, said her and her friends were boosted by the travel announcement.
“It was a last minute type thing,” she said.
“We feel a lot safer going away now. We’re going to be nothing really, just chilling.”
Also feeling “much safer” were a group of women from Derby, all friends in their fifties.
Shelley Jackson, Avril Birkett, Sarah Terrill and Kaneez Naqvi were set to fly to Alicante, after having to put the holiday off four times.
They said: "We are safer going now and we can't wait, we feel much better going away now."
As part of the changes, countries will be placed on a single red list and previous green and amber ranked nations will be classed as the ‘rest of the world’.
The rules for red list countries, where the coronavirus case rate is high, remain the same, meaning passengers returning from these nations must quarantine for 10 full days on their return.
Another change means fully vaccinated travellers will no longer need to take PCR tests when returning from non-red list countries, replacing them with lateral flow tests.
Sandy and Gary Graham, of Grantham, said that their two-week jollies to Alicante had been delayed twice due to Covid.
“I think it’s well deserved, it’s been 18 months seen I’ve last been away,” said 59-year-old Sandy.
“I worked all the way through Covid at a GP practice so I can’t wait to be lying in the sun and just relaxing.
“Although I don’t think I’ll feel relaxed and believe it’s going ahead until that plane takes off - or when we’ve landed.”
Peter and Pam Bourbage, retirees from Worcester, were preparing for their annual trip to Rhodes, a tradition that could not even be stopped by the pandemic last year.
“We thought it would be over by now," said Peter.
"We go to Rhodes every year, we even managed to go last year in October with no problems at all. It didn’t stop us. We’ll have a few drinks, go to the beach, just chill really."
