Jet2 is asking UK tourists to return from Spain early - here’s why

Jet2 has asked some of its customers on holiday in Spain to return to the UK days before their scheduled flights, or risk having to find their own way back home.

The travel company has suspended flights and holidays to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza, up to and including 9 August.

Meanwhile its flights to mainland Spain have already been cancelled while the firm will continue to send empty outbound flights to the country in order to bring customers home until 3 August.

What sparked the decision?

The decision from Jet2 was based on economic concerns over operating flights with fewer travellers, following the government's amended advice on travel to the country to go ahead for essential travel only.

This advice will now result in fewer people flying into the country, meaning the flights from the UK - which are used to pick up travellers currently in Spain and return them back home - will no longer be economical for the company to run.

However, the government has advised that travellers currently in Spain or the Balearic and Canary Islands do not need to leave the country ahead of their planned return dates. The government has only advised against current non-essential travel to the country and for those returning to the UK from Spain to self isolate for 14 days.