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(Alliance News) - Travellers trying to return from France on Friday to avoid the quarantine restrictions face a scramble for tickets costing hundreds of pounds.
British Airways, part of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, was charging GBP452 for a direct flight from Paris to London Heathrow on Friday night, but the plane was fully booked by 1030 BST.
The same journey on Saturday can be made with the airline for just GBP66.
The cheapest ticket on a Eurostar train from Paris to London is GBP210, compared with GBP165 on Saturday.
Car-carrying Channel Tunnel trains are fully booked until Saturday, which is too late to avoid the quarantine.
A spokesman for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said: "Due to the recent government announcement, our shuttles are now fully booked until tomorrow morning.
"There is no more ticket availability and we are not selling tickets at check-in. Please do not arrive at the terminal unless you have a ticket valid for travel today."
P&O Ferries has limited availability, but one person travelling with a car from Calais to Dover can buy a ticket for GBP200.
Travellers in the south of France face a struggle getting back to the UK before the 4am Saturday quarantine deadline.
Many direct flights to the UK on Friday are sold out.
Flight booking website Skyscanner suggested there were no direct flights from Biarritz to London.
The cheapest option it offered was to take one flight to Paris, another to Belfast and a third arriving at London Stansted shortly before midnight, at a total cost of GBP284.
The lowest priced ticket involving just two flights is GBP579 with Air France, changing in Paris.
Travellers trying to return from the Netherlands to the UK before quarantine restrictions are imposed also faced difficulties.
All easyJet PLC flights from Amsterdam to London were sold out.
The cheapest fares offered by British Airways for travel on the route on Friday are GBP327, compared with GBP128 on Saturday.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted the UK government had taken "a practical approach" to the new restrictions.
It was announced on Thursday night that people arriving in the UK from France after 4am on Saturday will be required to spend 14 days in self-isolation due to rising numbers of coronavirus cases there.
The quarantine conditions will also apply to travellers returning from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks & Caicos and Aruba.
Shapps said an estimated 160,000 holidaymakers are expected to try to return to the UK from France on Friday.
There "had to be a cut-off", he told BBC Breakfast.
"It's a practical approach as well, which has enabled all fours parts of the UK – Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England – to implement the same time at 4am where there are no flights in the air, at least tomorrow."
He added: "You can always argue one way or the other. We have to make a decision on it and we have to do that based on science and medicine, and that's what we've done, we've taken the advice and implemented on that basis."
The move, which applies throughout the UK, comes after Boris Johnson promised to be "absolutely ruthless" in decisions about imposing new quarantine restrictions.
The Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England detected a significant change in Covid-19 risk in all six destinations.
Department for Transport officials said data from France shows that over the past week there has been a 66% increase in newly reported Covid-19 cases and a 52% increase in the weekly incidence rate per 100,000 population, indicating a sharp rise in infections.
The latest 14-day cumulative figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control show 32.1 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in France, compared with 18.5 in the UK.
The move will come as a bitter blow to the hard-pressed French tourism industry which relies heavily on visitors from the UK.
France's secretary of state for European affairs said the UK decision would lead to "reciprocal measures" across the Channel.
Clement Beaune tweeted: "A British decision which we regret and which will lead to reciprocal measures, all in hoping for a return for normal as soon as possible."
By Neil Lancefield, PA Transport Correspondent
source: PA
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