Strikes and queues kick off big getaway

CRAMMED airports, congested roads, ferry queues and rail strikes saw Britain facing a "summer of stress" last night.

- Alistair Grant and Tony Whitfield

In the biggest getaway since before Covid, a fifth more cars are forecast to clog up roads this weekend.

There have been 3.1 million trips in the past 24 hours with traffic jams along the main routes heading to holiday hot spots such as the South-West.

The Port of Dover had warned of "a very popular travel day" as queues of lorries lined the A20 down to the ferry terminal.

But it did not experience a re-run of the chaotic scenes that marred the start of the Easter holidays. In April, travellers waited hours in gridlock blamed on a lack of French border staff.

To avoid a repeat of coaches being held up to 14 hours, additional officers were brought in to check passports.

The port operator said 25,671 passengers had set sail for France by 3pm. By late afternoon the wait to clear border control dropped to 60 minutes from a high of 90 minutes mid-morning.

With more than two million flights booked, airports experienced their highest number of departures since the pandemic.