Will easyJet fly me to Spain for my February getaway?

Q Every year I go to San Sebastian in Spain over the first weekend of February. I usually fly Manchester to Bilbao with easyJet. There are no flights showing as yet. Does this mean that easyJet will not be putting any on for that period?

Name supplied

A I salute your choice of new year break. San Sebastian is one of Spain’s most beautiful cities, with a gorgeous setting on the north coast close to the French border, a shell-shaped urban beach (La Concha) and some of the finest places to eat in all of Spain. Add the proximity of the Pyrenees and the strong Basque influence and I would be happy to be there each February, too.

But, as with many parts of the world following the coronavirus pandemic, there will be fewer choices in terms of reaching the city. The short-lived direct link from London to San Sebastian will not be repeated for some years (if at all), so Bilbao will remain the main approach.

Because of Covid-19 – and the UK government’s response to it – easyJet will be a significantly smaller airline in 2022 than it was in 2019. As a result, many flights that were offered in that year – which was a peak for aviation – will simply not appear in 2022.

While the airlines have shown they can add capacity very quickly – as they did to Turkey when it was finally taken off the red list last month – Manchester to Bilbao is an example of the kind of marginal route that will be slow to return.

In the good times, it was a profitable link, but with far fewer people travelling between northern Spain and northern England, easyJet will instead concentrate its Bilbao flying on London.

You could travel to the capital and fly from there. Or, for a more enjoyable journey, fly from Manchester to Paris, where are you can board a TGV high-speed train to the town of Hendaye on the Franco-Spanish border. From here, a regular narrow-gauge train trundles happily to the centre of San Sebastian every half-hour. That would certainly be my preferred option, although it will cost more and take much longer than your last trip there.

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Q I am a fully vaccinated adult, hoping to get away to France for half-term with my 17-year-old son. He has had only one jab and I understand he is regarded as unvaccinated.

The Foreign Office advice for travel to France says a test is necessary but self-isolation is not required for “children aged 12 years old or over who are not fully vaccinated and travelling with a fully vaccinated adult”.

But maddeningly it does not say what age a child is regarded as being in France: under 18 or under 16? Can you help?

Name supplied

A Yes, though I can understand your frustration. The Foreign Office turns out only to be repeating Gallic vagueness. The otherwise helpful online guide from the French consulate-general (available at bit.ly/CovFrance), refers only to “children aged 12 and over”.

So I approached the problem from first principles.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, “a child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”.

Next, I checked with the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union to see if France had a different view of when a person attains majority. This Vienna-based organisation states: “The age of majority is 18 years in all EU Member States” (it adds “except for Scotland, where children are considered to have full legal capacity from the age of 16 years,” though since Brexit this is no longer relevant).

While I was following a series of online trails to try to find the answer, I found some revelations that may be of interest to your son: he is able to buy beer or wine but not stronger liquor, but may not visit a casino.

Anyway, he will need to present a negative result from a privately arranged test (a cheap, quick lateral flow/antigen will do).

You, as a vaccinated adult, will need to present a sworn statement certifying that you have no Covid-19 symptoms and have not been in contact with anyone with coronavirus two weeks before you arrive. For proof of vaccination, upload the NHS QR code to the French government app, TousAntiCovid.

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Q I am fully vaccinated and hoping to travel to Prague. But I am concerned that someone on the plane back to the UK may test positive and oblige me to self-isolate for 10 days. How will a possible infection on the flight affect me? A week after my return, I have plans I cannot miss.

David B

A Go to Prague. With an important event impending, it makes sense to minimise the risk of contracting coronavirus and needing to self-isolate. You will be much less likely to do so if you are in almost any country other than the UK, where new infection rates are extremely high.

On Friday, for example, the UK recorded almost 39,000 new cases of Covid-19, compared with around 1,000 for the Czech Republic. Of course, this is meaningless until adjusted for population, which I have done – revealing that British rates are six times higher than Czech case numbers. So in your position, I would extend your stay in Prague until just before the event, thereby sharply reducing the risk of exposure to the virus.

To address your concern that someone on the plane might test positive after arrival: with such high rates in the UK, it is inevitable that some returning travellers will be found to be infected in the “day two” test that is required.

When this happens, the NHS Test and Trace service has a fairly blunt response: anyone travelling in the same aircraft cabin is assumed to be at risk and will be contacted. On a budget airline such as easyJet or Ryanair, everyone is in the same cabin, which means one case can generate more than 180 possible contacts.

But assuming you received the vaccines from the NHS, the government says: “You are not required to self-isolate if you are notified you have had close contact with someone with Covid-19 and … you are fully vaccinated.”

For anyone who has been fully vaccinated outside the UK, though, their jabs are not regarded as adequate.

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