The airline’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “It has been very confusing, to say the least. This point about it being clear from day one is simply not true.” 

He said the traffic lights scheme had been implemented in a different way to that envisaged by the industry.

“There was no indication when this was launched that you should not travel to amber countries.”

He added: “If there are countries the government does not want you to fly to, they should be in the red category. Amber has turned into red and travellers are being demonised.”

Lundgren said an examination of “data and science” showed there were “a number of countries on the amber list that should go on the green list”.

“Place like Greece and Spain, in our view, could be safely added to the green list, supported by the data.”

“The UK is falling behind; we urge the government to look at the data again.”

Lundgren said the opening up of the EU to vaccinated travellers should be a message to the UK government. The EU is expected to produce a list of countries, including the UK, which will be allowed into the 27 nations, in the next few days. However, UK government restrictions will still apply.

Lundgren said the UK government’s approach “was not backed up by data” and that the airline would “absolutely” continue flying to amber list destinations.

“We see there is demand for families to reunite and they should be able to do so,” he said, but admitted many were booking holidays to amber countries.

“The advice has been to use common sense and that it was up to the individual to do so.”