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With travel restrictions set to be lifted, sales of air tickets are rocketing

Holiday firms are reeling under a surge of bookings — though Europeans have been at it for weeks
Provence in France is likely to be on the list of Britons’ destinations
Provence in France is likely to be on the list of Britons’ destinations
GETTY

The rush to the beach is back on after the government allowed summer holidays to go ahead, with travel operators seeing an explosion in bookings in the past 24 hours.

Demand was so high that the Eurotunnel website crashed briefly yesterday, with the channel tunnel operator reporting three times the usual level of bookings for this day of the year.

Ministers are expected to announce this week the opening of quarantine-free “air corridors” to at least 15 countries including Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Germany and Croatia from July 6. This means that holidaymakers will not have to spend 14 days in quarantine on their return to Britain.

But Britons keen to escape are expected to find prices of flights starting to rise and shortages of villas in some locations because European holidaymakers have had a head start on booking.

Spain-Holiday, which lists more than 18,000 properties for rent, said yesterday morning was its busiest on record. Searches soared by 42%, with rural properties away from crowded tourist destinations proving the most popular.

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Peter Jarvis, head of international brands for the platform, said: “We’re seeing a huge interest in villages and small towns, particularly in the Alicante or Andalucia areas. People want to be away from the crowds in a standalone home.”

It is feared demand will outstrip supply. Industry experts have warned availability for European villas, especially large ones, is scarce, particularly in France.

“Across Europe there is going to be a spike in the number of people taking domestic holidays,” said a source who advises luxury travel operators.

“They’ve had a head start. Countries in the EU set out their plans earlier. In France, it was announced in late May that the 100km travel ban would be scrapped on June 2. Its citizens have had the confidence to book for over a month now. The same is true of the Dutch.”

Skyscanner, which handles 100 million searches a month, said its bookings for international economy class flights, jumped 84% month on month.

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Passengers booking flights for July will find seat capacity reduced, with prices expected to rise. An industry source said: “At the moment, prices are low but with reduced capacity and rising demand, they will increase rapidly.”

EasyJet will ramp up its operations from 14 UK airports from Wednesday. The airline plans to fly 50% of its 1,022 routes in July and 75% in August. However, frequency will be cut considerably, equating to about 30% of normal July-to-September capacity.

Ryanair will operate more than 1,000 flights a day from Wednesday. Last year it operated more than 81,000 flights in July. Tui, the UK’s largest holiday firm, will initially take only 8,000 passengers a week overseas when it restarts operations on July 11 — 4% of its usual schedule.

Eurotunnel will be back up to peak capacity on July 6.

Tour firms and travel agents hailed the government’s announcement as a “huge relief”. The industry came to a standstill in March when countries began closing their borders and the Foreign Office advised against all “non-essential” travel.

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“Quarantine has been the single biggest thing holding people back from booking,” said Carolyn Park, director of C the World Travel Agents. “There was no way most people were going to travel if they would have to self-isolate on return. We’re braced for an avalanche now.”

Safety is a consumer priority this summer. Agents and tour operators have reported “far greater demand” for villas and hotels with private beaches. In some countries, such as Spain, the number of people allowed on beaches is restricted.

Emma Coulthurst, of TravelSupermarket, said: “Destinations are pulling out all of the stops. Thousands of wardens, for example, have been enlisted to help ensure social distancing on the beaches in the Costa del Sol — measures which locals in Dorset would cry out for.”

@BenClatworthy