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AA estimates 19 million to drive on Good Friday, followed by 18 million on Saturday
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People heading on an Easter getaway this weekend are facing travel chaos, as multiple train lines close and millions hit the road.
Traffic queues are already forming along major routes including the A2 and M25 for the Dartford Crossing, as people try to get ahead of the estimated 19 million people are set to drive on Good Friday.
Heavy rain forecast by the Met Office could also disrupt journeys, the RAC has warned, as a yellow rain warning has been put in place across the south west of England.
Train passengers are also being warned over disruption as Network Rail prepares to begin its Easter engineering work – closing a number of railway lines.
The most significant impact will be at London Euston – which will have no services to or from Milton Keynes on Saturday and Easter Sunday, and a reduced timetable on Good Friday and Monday.
Those planning on flying to their Bank Holiday destinations will also face “major disruption”, as Gatwick airport workers are set to strike over pensions.
Lunchtime on Good Friday is expected to have the worst traffic of the Easter weekend.
The A303 westbound to Stonehenge and the M5 southbound J15 at the RAC tower north of Bristol are expected to be the worst affected.
Journey times are likely to be nearly an hour longer for both meaning drivers could be stuck in their vehicles for more than half as long as usual.
RAC breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said: “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.
There are already an estimated 74 million journeys planned over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend – but even more could be made depending on the weather.
RAC breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said an estimated 6.2 million people are “undecided” on when they will travel for an Easter leisure trip, which means “any sign of sun” could spark “big jams”.
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:
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.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “Cutting journey times and saving drivers money every year is all part of our Plan for Change to raise living standards and put more money in people’s pockets.
“We are tackling the real problems that drivers face by lifting 1,127 miles of roadworks over Easter and cracking down on disruptive streetworks to make journeys to see loved ones as smooth as possible.”
National Highways director of operational services, Andrew Butterfield, said: “We expect the roads to be busy with people looking to make the most of a long Easter weekend.
“That’s why we are making journeys easier by removing a huge number of roadworks.”
Traffic will be equally severe on Thursday 17, Good Friday 18 and Saturday 19 April with drivers planning around 2.7m trips every day during that period, the RAC said.
The number of trips planned drops slightly on Easter Sunday to 2.5m, before increasing again to a further 2.7m on bank holiday Monday as millions of people return home.
They add a further 6.2m journeys are anticipated at some point over the Easter bank holiday weekend with weather likely to be a big factor for when they travel.
Congestion is increasing on the M27 eastbound between junctions J9 and J12 after an earlier accident.
There are “long delays” of around 90 minutes on the M6 during the rush hour.
A broken-down vehicle caused delays worsened by “holiday traffic”, according to live updates from Inrix.
Congestion on the M6 northbound between junctions J14 and J15 is expected to last until 7.45pm.
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