Travel rules relax for fully vaccinated passengers across South Yorkshire & the rest of the UK
Many airports across the country are now expecting their busiest period since the coronavirus pandemic started nearly two years ago
Hundreds of thousands of people are embarking on a half-term getaway as the UK scraps coronavirus testing for fully vaccinated travellers.
Travel trade organisation Abta described the easing of restrictions as "a new chapter" for the industry's recovery.
It said Turkey, Egypt and Portugal are among the most popular short-haul destinations, while departures to the US state of Florida, Dubai, Mexico and the Caribbean have sold well for longer-haul holidays.
Ski resorts in France, Italy and Switzerland are also in demand.
Stansted Airport told Abta it is expecting around 200,000 passengers to depart between February 11 and 18.
Other airports to provide figures for the half-term getaway include Gatwick (186,000 passengers), Manchester (160,000 passengers), Luton (55,000 passengers), Bristol (55,000 passengers) and East Midlands (17,000 passengers).
The UK's rules for arriving travellers will be eased from 4am on Friday.
People who are fully vaccinated will no longer need to take a post-arrival lateral flow test, which typically costs around £20 each.
The requirement for unvaccinated arrivals to self-isolate will be dropped, but they will still need to take tests.
A poll of 2,000 UK consumers commissioned by Abta indicated that 64% of families with children under 16 say the limited opportunities to travel during the pandemic have made their holidays more important to them than before.
The travel association's director of communications Graeme Buck said: "Today's changes to the travel rules are the start of a new chapter for the travel industry's recovery.
"Testing has been one of the biggest barriers to travel, so it's hugely welcome that the process of travelling abroad is now much cheaper and easier for millions of UK holidaymakers.
"It's great to see so many families treating themselves to some quality time together this February half-term, and now that the UK's restrictions have eased, we expect many more will feel confident to travel and will start to plan their summer break."
Cross-Channel train operator Eurostar said more than 125,000 people are booked to travel between the UK and the Continent during the school holiday.
The busiest day will be Friday, when more than 16,000 passengers are booked to travel.
Several services are sold out.
Eurostar chief commercial officer Francois Le Doze said: "With travel restrictions between the UK and France lifting, we are seeing a surge in leisure traffic both in the short term and looking further ahead to spring and early summer.
"We have as many passengers booked to travel in February half-term as we had across the whole of January which shows the potential for recovery and the appetite for travel between the UK and the Continent.
"We will continue to add trains across our core routes and look forward to returning to our pre-pandemic frequency of service in the coming months."
Meanwhile, Declan Maguire from Doncaster Sheffield Airport is expecting demand to rise going forwards:
"We're looking ahead now. We're expecting around 10,000 passengers in the half-term week, which will probably be one of our busiest weeks since Covid-19 appeared.
"The relaxing of these restrictions means customers are going to be able to get away without having the worry of needing to isolate on their return or incur any additional expenses."
However, Andrew Lee, who's a Professor of Public Health at the University of Sheffield, says the move to relax travel restrictions doesn't come without risk:
"The Government needs to retain its vigilance and ability to respond quickly if we end up with new emerging threats.
"Especially if we end up with a new Covid-19 variant here which is much more severe than what we've seen so far.
"We may have to introduce restrictions again down the line to stop and slow the spread of any dangerous variants that potentially emerge in the future.
"Let's hope we don't reach that point though. The overall risk is low though, so I don't want to worry people too much about travel."