Easter holiday travel warning

Heavy traffic is predicted on major roads this afternoon, as the Easter getaway begins.

Some airports and airlines expect numbers over the bank holiday weekend and school holidays to get back to pre-Covid levels.

The aviation regulator said the industry had learned lessons from challenges of the past few years.

Rail passengers have been advised to plan ahead because of engineering works.

Research by the RAC and traffic analysts INRIX suggests congestion could be bad on Thursday afternoon, as getaway traffic combines with regular commuters.

In particular, they expect journeys on the M25, between the M23 for Gatwick the M1 in Hertfordshire, to take over two hours – twice the usual time.

Good Friday is set to be the busiest day. Bob Pishue from INRIX said: "Although travel times will peak on Thursday and Friday afternoons, drivers should be prepared for longer journeys than normal throughout the entire weekend."

With Easter falling earlier than usual at the start of the school holidays, the RAC warned of "carmageddon".

Breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson advised delaying Thursday journeys until late evening, and setting off as early as possible on Good Friday.

National Highways is removing 850 miles of roadworks on major routes to help ease traffic.

The AA said motorists should take extra care in rainy weather. It advised doing vehicle checks like engine oil, tyre pressure, fuel and charge levels before setting off. It also advised bringing essentials such as snacks and warm clothing.

People heading to the Channel Tunnel of Port of Dover will find the traffic management system Operation Brock in place on the M20. Drivers are being advised to plan ahead and leave extra time.

Travel association ABTA thinks two million Brits will head abroad over the long Easter weekend. It says the most popular destinations include the Canary Islands, mainland Spain and Turkey.

Julia Lo Bue-Said runs the Advantage Travel Partnership, a network of travel agents. She says holiday bookings for this Easter are up 9% on 2023. That's despite cost of living pressures, and holidays going up in price.

"We're not seeing any dampening of demand at all. In fact the season is exceptionally strong. [People are] prioritising that discretionary spend verses possibly going out to eat, theatres and things like that."

She does think holidaymakers are doing what they can to control costs. "40% of everything being sold is all-inclusive, and that has significantly increased from what we would typically see."

More late-notice bookings are coming in compared with previous years.

Airports and airlines are expecting big numbers, in some cases above 2019 levels.

For example, Manchester airport expects to handle around 320,000 passengers this weekend, 8% more than the equivalent last year.

Glasgow Airport said it would have extra staff in place during "three exceptionally busy weekends ahead".

Low-cost airline Easyjet is predicting its busiest ever Easter weekend.

The industry hopes to capitalise on the strong demand this year, after the post-pandemic recovery was marred firstly by staff shortages and then other issues such as air traffic control problems and wildfires in Europe.

Flight delays in 2023 were worse than before the pandemic. Only 64% took off within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time, compared with 75% in 2019.

Tim Johnson, strategy director at aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said he believed the industry had learned lessons from recent challenges, and done a lot of preparation.

He told the BBC: "We believe the industry is ready for those significant volumes to come through this year. We are confident they can cope based on what they've told us, but it will require every part of the system…to be fully committed to delivering the best possible service".

Trade body Airlines UK said the whole sector had been "investing in resilience and adjusting operations" to make sure it could "mitigate the impact of external factors for the millions of customers we look forward to carrying… across the busy summer season".

The CAA advised people to make sure package holidays are ATOL-protected, and that they have insurance.

The Airport Operators Association advised people to plan ahead and be patient with staff.

This time of year is usually busy at sea ports too.

Dover, the UK's busiest international ferry port, declared a critical incident at the start of the 2023 Easter getaway.

Extremely long queues built up, with some coach passengers reporting waits of more than 14 hours.

The Port's boss later told the BBC steps had been taken to prevent that level of delay in future.

At peak times over the next few days, Dover has told coach operators that even with the right resources in place at the border, wait times could be up to 2.5 hours.

Eurotunnel told the BBC it was putting on extra shuttles and staff to cope with expected high numbers.

There will be disruption on some rail routes over the long weekend, so it's important to check your journey in advance.

For example London Euston, one of the UK's busiest railway stations, will be closed between Good Friday and Easter Monday – except for London Overground trains.

It's because Network Rail engineering works between London and Milton Keynes will close part of the West Coast Main Line.

There will be replacement buses on this stretch. Avanti West Coast will operate a revised service on its network.

There's more information about other changes to train services around the country on the National Rail website.