This weekend is set to see a big bank holiday getaway, with today expected to be the busiest day at airports since before the pandemic.
Both the long weekend and the half-term break are offering a chance for a few days off and aviation analytics company Cirium is expecting 3,000 flights to take off from UK airports.
This is the highest number of daily departures since December 20, 2019.
Cirium also predicts more than 11,350 flights will depart over the long weekend, equating to more than two million seats, with the most popular destinations for UK travellers projected to be Dublin, Amsterdam, Palma, Malaga and Alicante.
Security guards at Heathrow Airport started a new three-day strike over pay yesterday (May 25), following previous walkouts by Unite members.
However the London-based airport’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “Passengers should not be concerned about strike action by Unite over the half-term getaway.”
Mr Holland-Kaye added that May half-term is always a very busy time for travel and that it may take a little longer than usual to get through security, but this will be “well-managed and kept flowing”.
Meanwhile, the Port of Dover boss Doug Bannister has said the terminal has done everything it can to prevent delays, following 15-hour backlogs to board ferries to France at Easter.
Tomorrow 5,500 cars and 350 coaches are due at Dover, with Mr Bannister saying coach arrival times to the port will be staggered to prevent jams.
Closer to home, the RAC say 19.2m will be hitting the roads for leisure trips to make the most of long-awaited sunshine, also making it the busiest late May bank holiday since the pandemic.
Friday may turn out to be busiest, the RAC say. A projected 3 million getaway trips are expected to be made with those seeking to enjoy the long weekend share the roads with those trying to finish their working weeks.
Transport experts INRIX expect the M25 to be a hotspot for traffic jams over the weekend, with journeys on some stretches – including clockwise from J23 for Hatfield to J28 for Chelmsford and anticlockwise towards the Dartford crossing - taking up to three times longer than normal.
Delays are also expected on the M5 in Somerset and M6 in Cheshire and Greater Manchester.
A further 6.3 million trips are expected to be taken at some point over the four days.
RAC Breakdown spokesman Rod Dennis said: “With the Met Office currently predicting largely settled weather with above average temperatures, we’re expecting this to be a hectic period on major roads as people aim to make the most of the last long weekend before August.”
The Met Office have said temperatures could reach 24 degrees in the West Midlands and southeast Wales on Saturday or Sunday.
It should remain sunny too - Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said:
“There will be little if anything in the way of rainfall.”
Easter saw passengers fainting on severely overcrowded trains and huge crowds at stations after London’s Euston Station, the main way to travel north west from the capital, was closed for four days.
It will be open this weekend, with a lot of engineering work on the London North Western Railway line taking place at night to ensure minimum disruption for travellers.
Dave Penney, passenger director of Network Rail’s North West and Central region, said: “We’ve made great progress improving the West Coast main line on previous bank holidays so far this year, which means we’re doing much less work this coming bank holiday break.”
