Record crowds, severe traffic jams and pilots strike forecast for busiest weekend of the year

Exclusive: airports, ports, motorways expected to be extremely busy, with strikes and rail engineering work adding to travel problems

Holidaymakers heading away over the coming weekend face record crowds, severe traffic jams – and a pilots’ strike on Ryanair.

Research by The Independent indicates that Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be the busiest weekend of the year so far at key ports and airports.

The UK’s leading holiday airport, Gatwick, expects the busiest day in its history for departures to be Friday 20 July, with 86,000 outbound travellers – an average of 80 per minute during the normal 18 hours of operation.

The top five European destinations are Barcelona, Malaga, Palma, Dublin and Faro, although numbers to Dublin will be affected by a pilots’ strike at Ryanair – causing the cancellation of some flights from Gatwick to the Irish capital.

The biggest long-haul destinations from Gatwick are Orlando, Dubai, New York, Toronto and Cancun.

The airport’s chief executive, Stewart Wingate, said: “We’re committed to ensuring that all of our passengers have a smooth and enjoyable experience as they travel through the airport this summer.”

Stansted, which has been increasing passenger numbers by over 11 per cent this year, is expected to see record departing crowds.

Manchester and Liverpool airports are anticipating their busiest weekend to be 27-29 July, because of the timing of the holidays for many schools in northwest England.

Birmingham airport expects the largest departing crowds to be on Tuesday 24 July, with 24,270 passenger taking off.

The Civil Aviation Authority says the busiest day in history for UK departures will be 27 July, with 8,841 flights. That is a rate of one take-off every 10 seconds.

On the roads, the RAC is describing 20 July as “Frantic Friday,” with an estimated 3.8 million separate leisure trips – making it the busiest day of the year. A further 3.2 million summer getaway journeys will be made on Saturday.

Drivers heading for the southwest can expect delays of an hour or more on the M5 between Gloucester and Devon, and on the A303 between the M3 in Hampshire and A37 in Somerset.

“A single breakdown or collision could easily extend these delays still further,” warns the RAC.

Joshua Kidd, data scientist for the transport analytics firm INRIX, urged drivers to “leave early morning or in the evening, as the midday and early afternoon periods will be the busiest times to travel” on Friday.

On the ferries, the Port of Dover expects Saturday and Sunday to be its busiest outbound days of the summer.

Eurotunnel is urging drivers using its shuttle from Folkestone to Calais to check in between 45 minutes and two hours before departure.

Across the Channel, the French authorities are warning that driving conditions heading south from the Paris region will be “very difficult”.

Train operators are expecting a busy weekend, with engineering work extending journey times on several key routes.

High-speed trains from London Paddington to Devon and Cornwall will be re-routed and slowed down because the line between Reading and Newbury is closed on Saturday and Sunday.

GWR services will be diverted via Bristol or Melksham, adding around 40 minutes to journey times.

The main line between Glasgow and Motherwell will be closed all weekend, leading to extended journeys and some services being curtailed.

Passengers using the Stansted Express between the Essex airport and London Liverpool Street face journey times of over an hour, around 20 minutes longer than normal.

One piece of good news for passengers on Virgin Trains, which operates from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow: the normal afternoon/early evening restrictions on off-peak tickets have been lifted every Friday through the summer from 20 July to 31 August inclusive.