Scottish holiday makers able to fly from Edinburgh to Greece next week

Easyjet flights plan to run from Edinburgh to Greek airports from July 18.

Flights from Scottish airports to Greece are due to resume this month as restrictions ease across the country.

Easyjet has confirmed services from Edinburgh to Athens and Heraklion are planned to restart on July 18, depending on government advice.

The news comes as the Greek government confirmed that a decision was made to permit all UK flights from July 15 “in co-operation with the British Government and after the recommendation of experts.”

Edinburgh airport to resume flights to Greece from next week

Greece reopened its borders to international visitors on July 1 but continued to ban flights from the UK due to concern about importing coronavirus cases.

British nationals usually make more than three million visits to Greece each year and are a large proportion of the country's inbound holidaymakers.

The UK's biggest tour operator, Tui, was due to serve four Greek islands when it resumes its operations for UK customers on Saturday, but those initial trips were cancelled due to the prohibition on flights.

Greece is among the countries which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has exempted from its advisory against all non-essential travel for UK citizens since Saturday.

It is also on the Department for Transport's list of destinations from which people returning to or visiting England will not need to self-isolate for 14 days from Friday.

An Easyjet spokesman said: “We currently plan to restart Greece flights from 18 July but we’ll continue to keep the programme under review to ensure it is in line with government advice.

“The first flights to be resumed will be Edinburgh Athens and Edinburgh Heraklion on 18 July.”