British scramble for flights to beat tomorrow’s UK quarantine deadline

Around 10,000 British citizens left Faro airport on Saturday to get home in time for Tuesday’s deadline when Portugal is taken off the UK’s green list.

The President of Algarve Tourism, João Fernandes said he expected that the peak had been reached on Saturday and that there would be less light departures with British tourists from Sunday.
“Yesterday (Saturday) there were around 10,000 British tourists leaving, but it was also interesting to learn that that same period around 2,500 were arriving. So, despite the British backwards step, there are still British arriving in the Algarve,” said Fernandes to the news agency Lusa.
And the price of flights to the UK skyrocketed by more than 180% when it was announced that Portugal was off the green list.
The cheapest flight to leave Faro on the day before the restrictions were announced on Friday was €94. After the announcement demand for flights back to the UK skyrocketed to €265.
In other words, prices rose by 180%. Flights between Faro and London cost between €16 and €85 on average. easyJet flights on the last day that it was possible to return to the UK without having to go into mandatory 10 days quarantine were €265.
Other low-cost airlines were charging even higher prices. WizzAir tickets were going for €291 while British airways flights shot up to between €549 and €652.
On Sunday, the prices were similar, with the most expensive on sale for €910 with the BA flight which left Faro at 1.25pm. Before the announcement the cheapest BA ticket had been €144.
The other four available flights, from British Airways and BA Cityflyer cost over €600.
For those travelling on the first day when the restrictions came into force (Tomorrow, 8 June), flights from London to Faro have already returned to normal prices: €80 on easyJet which leaves at 10am for London-Luton.
According to television channel TVI on Sunday the British were also cancelling or postponing holidays to the north of Portugal, particularly the Douro Valley with negative consequences for river cruise holidays and vineyards, wine cellars and hotels involved in wine tourism.