THOUSANDS of Brits face Christmas in quarantine after the Canary Islands was chopped from the travel corridor list from 4am tomorrow.
Holidaymakers and expats flying home after December 18 cannot see family as they must self-isolate for five days, then have a test and wait 24-48 hours for the result.
50,000 Brits had trips booked for our most popular winter-sun destination – and some of the islands’ 25,000 expats planned to visit the UK for Christmas.
Mum Leanne Barker, from Manchester, said: “I landed in the Gran Canaria on Thursday and the earliest flight home arrives at 5pm Saturday. I’ll now have to quarantine for Christmas.”
Adam Kearey, from Lancashire, said: “I arrived in the Canaries with my family 10 minutes before the travel corridor announcement. How can I go to work when I get home if I have to self-isolate?”
Flight prices almost trebled as Brits rushed home yesterday to beat the 4am quarantine deadline. Jet2’s Tenerife-London Stansted flight rocketed from £71 to £190.
Many families booked to go to the Canaries for Christmas scrapped trips.
Anyone returning after December 28 could not complete quarantine before schools and many jobs restart on January 4.
Airlines are set to set ditch flights amid a rush of cancellations.
Julia Lo Bue-Said of Advantage Travel Partnership said: “The majority of winter sun departures over Christmas would have been to the Canary Islands, so removing them from the safe list is hugely damaging for the tourism industry.”
Critics say the Government should have done island-by-island travel corridor rules for the Canaries, as with Greece, which saved half-term when popular tourist spots such as Crete were allowed, when some other parts of Greece were off-limits.
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