25th Jun 2021 14:49
(Alliance News) -Â Both easyJet Group PLC and Ryanair Holdings PLC added seats to destinations such as Malta and the Balearic Islands following their addition to the UK's travel green list, but urged the government to relax travel rules further.
Announced on Thursday, fourteen new countries and territories have been added to the UK government's green list of destinations from which travellers do not have to self-isolate on their return. They include Spain's Balearic Islands, Malta, Madeira and a number of Caribbean destinations.
However, all of the additions except Malta were also put on a watchlist, which means they are at risk of returning to the amber list.
A number of popular hotspots such as France, Greece, Italy and mainland Spain remain in the amber tier. Travellers returning to the UK from those locations must self-isolate at home for 10 days, making holidays unviable for many people.
easyJet said it has put over 50,000 extra seats on sale from the UK to new green list destinations.
This includes two new routes from Bristol and London Luton to Malta which will launch next month and more seats to Malta on existing routes from London Gatwick and Manchester, the FTSE 250-listed budget airline said.
Chief Executive Johan Lundgren said the bolstered offering means it now has around one million seats operating to current European green list destinations this summer.
"And with two thirds of UK adults expected to be double jabbed by 19 July, now is the time to let British citizens take advantage of the success of the vaccination programme so we urge the government to move quickly to remove quarantine and testing for fully vaccinated people travelling from Amber and Green countries," he said.
easyJet is "ready and able to ramp up", Lundgren added.
Ryanair - which has added 200,000 extra seats from the UK to Malta, Ibiza and Palma across July, August and September - also urged the government to allow ease of travel for fully vaccinated holidaymakers.
"This is a small step in the right direction. While we welcome the addition of Malta and the Balearics to the UK's green list, this is simply not enough for a country where over 60% of the adult population is now fully vaccinated," the Irish airline said in a statement.
Ryanair criticised the current traffic light system as being "very confusing" for airlines and customers.
"We urge the UK govt to immediately add Cyprus, the Canaries and the Greek Islands to the green list as the rest of Europe has done, and to immediately allow fully vaccinated UK & EU citizens travel freely to/from the EU without all these unnecessary and useless travel restrictions," it said.
Shares in easyJet were down 1.2% at 958.00 pence in London on Friday, while Ryanair was down 1.3% at EUR16.40.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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