Holidaymakers returning to England from France are currently forced to quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)The UK is set for its busiest weekend of flights this year as pressure grows to allow holidaymakers to visit France without forcing them to quarantine on their return.
More than 2,100 flights are expected to take off from Britain to major European holiday destinations over the next few days, according to new data seen by The Times.
Figures show that 352 flights are set to take off for Greece, which is only 5 per cent below the comparable weekend in 2019.
Jet2 told the paper that 170 departures were planned this weekend compared with only 70 for the same period last week.
It comes as the government continues to face pressure to allow quarantine-free travel from France for double-jabbed residents.
Holidaymakers returning to England from France are currently forced to quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated.
Double-jabbed Britons coming home from more than 140 other amber list countries are now permitted to skip quarantine.
However France was added to an “amber plus” list last week amid concerns about the Beta variant which is thought to evade some vaccines.
Politicians from both nations, as well as tourism and business chiefs, have branded the move “ludicrous”, calling on the Health Secretary Sajid Javid to reverse the decision.
Alexandre Holroyd, a French MP, said that Paris is still reeling from the decision.
“Quarantining fully vaccinated people is ludicrous and sends the wrong message,” he added.
France is currently entering a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections with cases rising fast.
On Tuesday France’s Health Minister Olivier Véran told MPs that there had been “18,000 contaminations over 24 hours only” on Monday when fewer than 7,000 were observed the week before.
Mr Véran attributed the rise to the arrival of the Delta variant, which was first detected in India.
He added: “This means that we have an increase in the circulation of the virus of the order of 150 per cent over a week: we have never experienced this, neither with (the original strain of) Covid, nor with the English variant, nor with the South African nor with the Brazilian one,” the Euro news reported.
