Holidaymakers suspected of having swine flu will be prevented from checking in and required to provide doctors’ notes saying that they are fit to fly, airlines said yesterday.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have provided check-in staff and cabin crew with guidance on the virus as it continues to spread. The news comes just before one of the busiest weeks of the year for airports, with thousands of families preparing to go on holiday.

Doctors’ leaders condemned the policy as “an absolute nonsense”. They said they would not be able to identify everyone carrying the virus and that the process would be a drain on health workers’ time.

Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead representative on pandemic flu, told The Times that he was advising doctors not to issue the notes because they would not be worth the paper they were written on.

“It is a total and utter waste of time,” Dr Holden said. “A fit-note is only going to be valid at the moment of issue. You could easily become ill between leaving the GP’s surgery and reaching the airport. It flies in the face of government efforts to relieve pressure on doctors, and we have much more important work to do than this.”

Passengers with headaches, sore throats and runny noses would be targeted by the airlines. BA said that some people displaying symptoms of H1N1 had been advised not to travel. A spokesman for ABTA, which represents travel agents, said that the precautions were “sensible” and that travel insurance should cover the cost of cancellations caused by the virus.

Eight British schoolchildren on a trip to China are in hospital after contracting swine flu. More than 50 of their classmates and teachers are in quarantine in a hotel.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will give a final statement to the House of Commons today on the impact of swine flu before MPs go on their summer break.

The Department of Health reissued its guidance to pregnant women, who have been identified as a higher-risk group, after conflicting advice. Ministers had accused the National Childbirth Trust of overreacting after it said that women should delay getting pregnant until the pandemic had passed.

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