UK site visitors information reside: Easter travellers warned of practice chaos and airport strikes with 19 million to hit UK roads | EUROtoday

On Good Friday morning queues are build up at Dover.

The Port of Dover mentioned at 8.10am: “P&O traffic is causing extended processing times at Border Control.”

Passport checks for France are carried out on the port earlier than travellers board ferries.

Motorists are informed to anticipate a wait of round 40 minutes forward of the French border publish, and the identical size of time for P&O Ferries check-in.

The look forward to DFDS Ferries check-in is quarter-hour.

DFDS Ferries says: “We are aware of the queues to arrive at check-in. Please be assured that once you arrive at check-in. we will ensure you are checked-in on the first available departure.”

In earlier years, Dover has been the scene of extreme delays through the Easter holidays, as coaches converge on the UK’s foremost ferry port.

But the failure of the European Union to introduce the entry-exit scheme as promised in November 2024 means journeys are smoother than they may have been, without having for automobile occupants to be fingerprinted or photographed.

Bigger downside are prone to face motorists getting back from France to Dover between Saturday 19 and Monday 21 April.

Last weekend queues of 90 minutes constructed up for the border formalities at Calais, the place each French and UK frontier workers examine paperwork earlier than passengers board their ferries.

The Government has lifted over a thousand miles of street works this Easter in a bid to make “journey’s smoother”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X: “No one wants to spend their Easter weekend stuck in traffic.

“So we’re lifting more than a thousand miles of roadworks over Easter.

“And to save you money, we’ve frozen fuel duty and delivered record funding to fix potholes.

“Drivers — I’m on your side.”

Seven flood alerts are in place throughout the South of England.

Localised flooding is feasible from floor water in components of South West England on Friday and into Saturday.

Land, roads and a few properties could flood and there could also be journey disruption.

Amber flood alerts are within the following areas:

– Borehole at River Hill, close to Flamstead

-Kimpton and Lilley Bottom

-the Candovers and Old Alresford

-Great Shefford, Henley and Assendon

-West Ilsley, East Ilsley, Compton, Chilton and West Hagbourne

-River Mimram in Hertfordshire

It comes after the Met Office issued a yellow climate warning for the southwest of England on Friday, overlaying vacationer hotspots together with Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

The moist climate is prone to trigger tough driving situations and disruptions to journey over the weekend.

Lines are blocked between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street, as a consequence of a trespass incident.

Trains operating between these stations could also be delayed by as much as 20 minutes or revised, National Rail mentioned.

Disruption is predicted till 08:15 am.

The Met Office has issued a yellow climate warning for the southwest of England on Friday, overlaying vacationer hotspots together with Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

The forecasters warned {that a} extended spell of rain, a few of it heavy, will doubtless trigger tough driving situations and a few disruption to journey as thousands and thousands hit the street over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Lunchtime on Good Friday is predicted to have the worst site visitors of the Easter weekend.

The A303 westbound to Stonehenge and the M5 southbound J15 on the RAC tower north of Bristol are anticipated to be the worst affected.

Journey instances are prone to be almost an hour longer for each that means drivers might be caught of their automobiles for greater than half so long as ordinary.

RAC breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson mentioned: “We’re still expecting to see extremely high levels of traffic from Thursday onwards, with the greatest number of Easter getaway trips planned for three years.”

Aviation analytics firm Cirium says Good Friday, 18 April, will be the busiest day overall, with 2,949 flights taking off from UK airports – a departure every 30 seconds on average.

Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, confirms its busiest day will be Good Friday.

The carrier plans more than 1,100 flights to or from UK airports carrying up to 145,000 passengers.

The top sunshine destinations are Dalaman in Turkey and the Spanish islands of Mallorca and Tenerife.

But with air traffic control centres across Europe still chronically short of staff, holidaymakers face the worst disruption caused by congestion in the skies in a quarter-century.

Ryanair says 36.2 million of its passengers have been impacted by air traffic control restrictions in the last year, with more than 200,000 flights delayed.

Travellers to and from France and Spain are worst affected.

The AA and RAC agree the busiest day over the Easter spell will be Thursday, with 19.8 million motorists in their vehicles at some stage of the day.

Good Friday looks almost as busy. Easter Sunday will see the lightest traffic.

For holiday journeys within the UK, The Independent has used data from previous years to predict the heaviest traffic on four key arteries:

• M6 north of Birmingham, especially Preston and beyond as holidaymakers head for Blackpool and the Lake District.
• M5 southwest from Birmingham to Bristol and Exeter
• A303 southwest through Wiltshire
• M25 particularly between the M23 and M40 junctions to the southwest, and the Dartford Crossing to the east.

Trains running between Stevenage and London Kings Cross may be cancelled, delayed by up to 90 minutes, revised or diverted via Hertford North, National Rail said.

Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.