Demand for car-carrying Channel Tunnel trains is returning to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels quicker than air travel, new figures show.

Some 233,172 passenger vehicles were carried on Eurotunnel Le Shuttle services in July.

This is just 21% down on July 2019, whereas the UK’s biggest airlines easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways operated less than half their capacities last month.

Users of Eurotunnel Le Shuttle are able to stay in their vehicle throughout the trip between Folkestone, Kent and Coquelles near Calais, northern France. Crossings take 35 minutes.

Getlink, which operates the trains, said it received “very high reservation levels” after the Government announced that from July 10 it would lift the quarantine requirement for people returning to or arriving in England from France and certain other countries.

Its July traffic peaked on the last day of the month, when 12,239 vehicles used the service.

Demand across the first seven months of the year was down 46% compared with the same period in 2019, due to the impact of the pandemic.

Getlink said it also transported 123,879 lorries last month, a decrease of 5% year-on-year.