The new travel rules set to be introduced from next week means there is only one foreign destination you can fly to from Southend for a holiday.

Only Faro in Portugal is on the Government’s green-list when it comes to services offered at Southend Airport.

Green list rules means people are allowed to travel to the country for leisure purposes and will not need to quarantine when they return to the UK.

Ryanair is the only airline which offers flights from Southend Airport to Faro.

According to the airline’s website, it’s next available booking is for June 3, with a one-way ticket to Faro for that date currently listed for £85.

The cheapest available ticket in June is £42 on the 12th.

The cheapest prices in July and August are currently £22.

All other destinations you can fly to from Southend Airport are and will remain on the amber travel list from May 17.

They are:

Spain

  • Alicante
  • Bilbao
  • Girona
  • Malaga
  • Mallorca
  • Reus

France

  • Bergerac
  • Brest
  • Marseille

Italy

  • Milan
  • Treviso
  • Venice

Norway

  • Bergen
  • Kristiansand

Greece

  • Corfu

Ireland

  • Dublin

Romania

  • Bucharest

Moldova

  • Chisinau

Lithuania

  • Vilnius

Government rules state that you must not travel to amber list countries for leisure purposes – effectively ruling out any hopes of a holiday to the above destination in May.

The list will be reviewed again in June.

The ‘do not travel’ message is only guidance however, meaning tourists may not necessarily be prevented from traveling to an 'amber' country for a holiday.

For those who do travel, or travel through, an amber list country, they must quarantine at home for ten days on their return to the UK.

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They are also required to take a Covid test on or before day two of their quarantine period and on or after day eight.

Critics have hit out at the number of destinations on the green list, and have called for the Greek islands, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands to be added.

EasyJet Holidays CEO Garry Wilson told BBC Breakfast: “The good news is travel is reopening and our customers can look forward to those well-earned breaks in the summer that they’ve been waiting many months for.

“I think the very disappointing news is just the number of countries that are on the list, and if you look at European countries there’s very few, and of those European countries the major holiday destination is Portugal.

“So we did think it was very cautious and it is really not aligning with the approach the Government has taken to open up domestic travel and we don’t think it is backed up by the science or the data.”

He added: “We believe, looking at the science and looking at the data, that places like the Greek islands, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, very popular holiday destinations, actually do meet those criteria and should be on that list.”