Deploying RAF Voyagers to bring home UK nationals still overseas is now being discussed at the top of government.
Lockdown restrictions globally have left up to one million travellers around the world no time to book flights and return home.
Tourists stuck on holiday in New Zealand, India and Peru have been desperately demanding Ministers put on rescue flights.
Repatriation Voyager flights can carry around 290 people and have room for the sick to lie on stretchers and critical care facilities if needed.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is in talks with commercial airlines to bring back those left behind.
An international effort to bring back Brits among the G7 countries including the US is also being intensified, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said.
Officials are now working round the clock to support Brits who are unable to find a route back.
Mr Raab last week urged overseas Brits to cut short their trips and head back immediately.
The government has brought back Brits in recent weeks from Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Portugal and Wuhan, China – where the pandemic started.
A Downing Street official said: “In the first instance we are trying to do this by commercial means and the Transport Secretary has been working with the airlines on that.
“There are a number of countries we have brought people back from. But we will look at repatriation flights in exceptional circumstances.”
