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The boss of Jet2 says demand for holidays has returned to "around pre-Covid levels" after the testing rules for international travel were relaxed.
Steve Heapy said the holiday company saw a "huge spike" in bookings after the government said pre-departure tests for fully vaccinated people would be scrapped from 04:00 GMT on Friday.
He said Jet2 has a larger summer holiday package for 2022 than 2019.
Other travels firms have also experienced an uptick in bookings.
Tour operator Tui said customers had been given the "reassurance" that travel "will once again be easier and more affordable", but added it had not seen demand return to levels seen before the pandemic.
Jet2's Mr Heapy told the BBC's Today programme that before the rule changes on Wednesday, bookings were "well below" usual levels, but added the relaxation of measures gave people "the confidence that perhaps they won't be caught in resorts quarantining", with bookings up 150% on Thursday.
"People are desperate to get away, that's been demonstrated over the past couple of days," he added.
Mr Heapy said the Omicron Covid variant had showed that governments should perhaps "bide your time and look at the science a bit before jumping into lockdown".
"We can't just jump into lockdowns and further restrictions every time there is a new variant. We have to learn to live with it and hopefully this is the beginning and the end and we can get back to some normality," he added.
"It's been very tough for the travel industry. The biggest thing this industry needs is not lots of bailouts from the government, we just need to fly.
"We just need to take people away and we will be profitable, we will be paying tax, contributing to the economy and to do that we need stability."
Image source, Getty Images
The shake-up in the travel rules was announced by Boris Johnson on Wednesday, following calls from travel firms who said the measures were not effective now that Omicron was spreading widely.
- From 04:00 GMT on Friday 7 January, people who are fully vaccinated and those aged under-18 will no longer need to take a test two days before travelling to England from countries outside the UK and the Common Travel Area. On arrival, they will have to take a PCR test but they will no longer have to self-isolate while awaiting the result
- From 04:00 GMT on Sunday 9 January they will only have to take a lateral flow test instead of a PCR test on day two. But this test must be bought from a private test provider - free NHS tests are not allowed
- Unvaccinated passengers will need to continue to take a pre-departure test, PCR tests on day two and day eight, and self-isolate for 10 days
'Busiest day'
Alistair Rowland, chief executive of long-haul tour operator Blue Bay Travel, said the day of the rule change announcement was the company's busiest day for website traffic and booking enquiries in over a year.
"The volume of enquiries received yesterday matched that of January 2020 daily levels, which is something we couldn't have imagined a month ago, when these testing rules came in and consumer confidence plummeted," he said.
"Our most popular destination for bookings right now is the Maldives."
Tui said Mexico and the Dominican Republic were proving the most popular destinations currently, with the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Egypt also seeing increased demand.
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