Rory Sullivan, CNN • Updated August 15, 2020
The rush came after the government announced late on Thursday that all people arriving in France from France, where the rates of Covid-19 infections are high, would have to self-isolate from Saturday to 14 days.
The rule change, which came into force on Saturday at 4 o’clock BST, also applies to those traveling to the Netherlands from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos Islands and Aruba.
Transportation companies noted a steep increase in demand as people booked last-minute tickets in a race to meet Saturday morning’s deadline.
The Eurotunnel Le Shuttle train service, which transports cars between France and the United Kingdom, was fully booked on Friday as a result of the increased demand, according to PA Media.
A spokesman for the service told the news agency that 12,000 people tried to buy tickets in the hour following the government’s announcement on Thursday, compared to the hundreds of requests it normally receives over the same period.
Will Bowen, 24, a British tourist who is on holiday with some friends near Paris until Sunday, told CNN that although he understood the decision, he believed the government could have given holidaymakers more leeway.
People stand at the airport near Biarritz on 14 August 2020, the day before the United Kingdom imposes quarantine on people arriving from France.
Bob Edme / AP
“Maybe a little more of a heads-up would have been nice,” he said.
Bowen added that one of his friends wanted to book a Eurostar train back to the UK before quarantine was imposed. The tickets, however, which came up to around £ 350 ($ 458), were sold out before she had a chance to buy one.
Elsewhere, Nathan Hatem, a French citizen living in London, was on his way to France on Saturday morning to visit his family for the first time in six months.
Speaking at St Pancras International Railway Station in London, Hatem told CNN: “I’m going to work from home. It’s not ideal, but that’s life.
“I worked at home for three months during the first lockdown in March, April, May. I thought it was ready, but apparently not,” he added.
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the government’s decision to end travel corridors with France and other destinations was based on the latest available coronavirus data.
“Data shows that we need to remove France, the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks & Caicos and Aruba from our list of coronavirus corridors to keep infection rates down,” he tweeted on Thursday.
As of Friday, France and the Netherlands had Covid-19 case rates of 34.0 and 41.6 per 100,000 people, while the UK rate was 17.3, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
In an announcement made on Friday, the High Council of Public Health (HCSP) of France recommended that its population wear masks in all enclosed spaces and in outlying areas that attract a high density of people.
Paris has vowed to retaliate following the move by the UK, with French Minister of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune tweeting that his country is disappointed by the decision.
France is the second most popular holiday destination for British holidaymakers behind Spain, recently placed on the UK Government’s quarantine list.
Anyone found to have broken the quarantine restrictions could face a £ 1,000 fine in England, according to the government’s website.
CNN’s Hanna Ziady, Vasco Cotovio, Barbara Wojazer, Scott McLean, Duarte Mendonca and Arnard Siad contributed to this report.
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