SOUTHAMPTON tourists visiting Portugal could be forking out hundreds of pounds to leave the country before new coronavirus quarantine rules come into force.

Travellers must arrive in the UK before 4am on Tuesday or they will be required to self-isolate at home for 10 days.

This is due to the Government’s controversial decision to remove Portugal from its green travel list.

Tourists wanting to beat the deadline are being hit by a combination of many flights being sold out, and the handful of available seats being sold at inflated prices.

A number of flights from Faro to Southampton are costing between £400 and £600, with some flights taking more than 20 hours to get tourists back home.

One British Airways flight leaved Faro tonight at 7.45pm and arrives in Southampton tomorrow at 6.45pm.

The flight costs £552 for one adult and takes 23 hours.

Another flight leaves Faro at 7.45pm tonight and returns home at 7.15pm tomorrow. The flight has two stops and costs £603 for one person.

A spokesman for AGS Airports Ltd, which owns Southampton Airport, said:

“We fully appreciate that public health must always come first, however, within two weeks of the safe restart commencing Portugal has been designated an amber-list country and from tomorrow passengers returning will now need to quarantine at home for 10 days on top of the testing costs required in order to travel.  

“The red, amber and green list system was designed to address the confusion of last year where a country was deemed safe for non-essential travel and then back on the quarantine list withing a matter of days.

“The continued uncertainty associated with international travel will not only seriously damage passenger confidence, which is already extremely fragile, it will also put the aviation industry and the hundreds of thousands of jobs associated with it at real risk.

“People will chose not to fly due to the uncertainty involved and airlines will find it impossible to operate in such unpredictable conditions.”   

Ryanair is charging £285 for a flight from Faro to Bournemouth on Monday, but just £17 on Wednesday.

EasyJet flights from Faro to Gatwick are £227 on Monday and £53 on Tuesday.