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Although Callum Bushell, 24, accused NHS Test and Trace of a serious “data protection breach”, he still looked up the man online – and got in touch with him. It emerged they were on the same flight to Manchester Airport from Palma in Majorca on July 17.

The man, who Daily Express has chosen not to name, tested positive for coronavirus only after his return to the UK.

And Callum, a customer service assistant, received a text message from the service five days later on July 22.

Manchester Evening News reports a Test and Trace service manager told Callum an “investigation” had been launched – and “appropriate action” would be taken.

“The gent on the phone from NHS Test and Trace went on to tell me the full name of the person who had tested positive,” Callum said.

“I am shocked by this data protection breach.

“I only asked who it was because I thought it could be my partner, because he’s had Covid in the past.

“They told me his name and that he had been on the same flight. I just couldn’t believe they revealed someone’s details.”

Callum and his partner flew to Majorca for seven days on July 10.

Their four-star hotel in Palma Nova, and the flights, cost around £1,600 with Jet2holidays, and they spent around £400 on testing, Callum said.

He was also critical of the cleanliness of their hotel, and the plane on the flight back.

Callum, from Northern Moor, Manchester, said he tracked the man down on Instagram and contacted him. It is unclear if Callum was sitting directly next to the man, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, on the plane.

Callum continued: “He confirmed he was the fellow passenger onboard the flight who I had been in contact with, and that he did have Covid-19.

“He hasn’t told me where he was sitting on the plane, but it has been classed as a close contact.

“I didn’t know the man.

“It’s mental. They revealed private data.

“I wonder how many others on the flight have been told to self-isolate, and how long it took NHS Test and Trace to inform them?

“I was told five days after the plane touched down – and obviously I didn’t know.

“We took a test before we left, before we flew back, then another within two days of returning back to Manchester.

“They were all negative.”

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Callum said a Test and Trace senior manager went on to contact him on Saturday and told him it was ‘serious’ and an investigation had opened.

They were going to listen back to the phone call on the Thursday, he added.

A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: “NHS Test and Trace has contacted over 12.3 million people since the start of the pandemic, and this has had a significant impact, breaking chains of transmission and reducing the spread of the virus.

“In the latest week we successfully reached 85. per cent of positive cases transferred to NHS Test and Trace and 94.3 per cent of contacts identified to NHS Test and Trace.

“NHS Test and Trace takes all personal data breaches very seriously. Where a breach has been reported, every effort is taken to investigate, rectify the situation as quickly as possible and to prevent it happening in the future.”

Asked whether a breach had been reported, the spokesman added: “We don’t comment on individual cases.”

The DHSC said, however, it expected all its suppliers to act within the terms of their contracts and to fully comply with their contractually agreed obligations with regard to their data protection requirements.

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